NCAA weighs in on Louisville Cardinals Punishment; 2012 Final Four and 2013 Title Vacated?

The NCAA has come to collect in regards to the scandal covered in the book Breaking Cardinal Rules by former mistress Katina Powell.

The book details incidences in which former Louisville Cardinals basketball players and staff member paid for prostitutes and strip parties for players and recruits, some which were minors at the time.

The NCAA has ruled that coach Rick Pitino will be suspended five ACC games. But the big story in what the NCAA talked about today in a teleconference is the fact that they will vacate wins from the time period in which Powell and McGee operated, which included the years of 2012 and 2013 where UofL went to a Final Four and won a national championship. The NCAA committee said it has never come across anything that like what happened at UofL.

The NCAA says it has never encountered a case like the sex scandal uncovered at the University of Louisville.

The governing body announced sanctions for the Louisville men's basketball team on Thursday. Among the harsh penalties being imposed are the suspension of basketball coach Rick Pitino for five Atlantic Coast Conference games. And the school is being told to vacate wins in which ineligible players participated.

WDRB’s Eric Crawford :

UofL hired Chuck Smrt as an advisor on how to handle the scandal and respond to the NCAA as well as do his own investigative research on the matter. It was under the advisory of Smrt that UofL placed a self-imposed postseason ban during the season of 2-15/2016.

Today on KSR, Matt Jones had on Katina Powell herself and she confirmed that two players on those Final Four and title teams did indeed participate in the scandal, facts that the NCAA no doubt has:

Of course UofL released an aggressive statement which is ridiculous:

Rick Pitino is of course playing the martyr here. I guess he thinks the NCAA should just let it all go:

This is far from over but UofL has the right to appeal, which they will. They have 45 days until hey have to officially announce the players that were involved and the games that the NCAA wants to vacate.

The appeals process could take up to three months to wrap up but things aren’t looking good for UofL in that regard. The committee is following it’s own rules in regards to player eligibility and the punishments allotted to programs that break those rules.

Remember all of those jokes about hanging John Calipari’s banners up with velcro? Welp.