NCAA suspends Rick Pitino for five games

Jun 15, 2017, 11:34 AM

Louisville Cardinals coach Rick Pitino received a five-game ACC suspension as part of discipline from the NCAA on Thursday regarding a sex scandal that engulfed the men's basketball program.

The NCAA ruled that Pitino "violated NCAA head coach responsibility rules" by failing to monitor the activities of former assistant Andre McGee, who is alleged to have hired strippers to entertain players and recruits.

Pitino will not be allowed to coach for the first five ACC games next season. McGee received a 10-year show cause penalty.

In addition, the Cardinals will be on probation for four years, have scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions and the forfeiture of any money received though conference revenue sharing from the 2012-15 NCAA tournaments.

The status of Louisville's national title could also be at risk, as the NCAA ruled the school must vacate all basketball records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible from December 2010 and July 2014.

The NCAA also accepted the university's self-imposed 2015-16 postseason ban.

The school met with the governing body in April after allegedly committing four violations, with Pitino accused of failing to monitor McGee. The Hall of Fame coach and the school vowed to fight that allegation.

In its ruling Thursday, the Committee on Infractions ruled McGee "acted unethically when he committed serious violations by arranging striptease dances and sex acts for prospects, student-athletes and others, and did not cooperate with the investigation."

Katina Powell, the self-described former escort at the center of the scandal, and McGee will not be criminally charged after a grand jury in Jefferson County, Kentucky, declined to return an indictment against either party because of the lack of sufficient credible evidence.

In her book, "Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen," which was published in October 2015, Powell detailed nearly two dozen parties that featured dancers performing sex acts for Cardinals recruits and players from 2010 to 2014 inside Billy Minardi Hall, the on-campus dorm for athletes and other students.

Shortly after the book's release, Powell told ESPN that McGee arranged the parties and paid her $10,000 for supplying the dancers, many of whom had sex with recruits in exchange for cash paid by McGee.

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NCAA suspends Rick Pitino for five games

Re: NCAA suspends Rick Pitino for five games

Pay for hookers..probation. 20 years of academic fraud

These Puritanical laws are awful

Re: These Puritanical laws are awful

So does the ACC $ forfeited by Louisville get

Wanna bet the Cards 6th game will be Clem@UofL?***

Can UNC home and away be scheduled in UL's first 5 games?***

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