LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The long NCAA saga over the the University of Louisville basketball program's recruitment of Brian Bowen — a secret deal for $100,000 from Adidas and the numerous twists and turns that followed — ended Thursday not with a bang but a whimper.
An Independent Accountability Review Panel — an outside process set up by the NCAA to handle complex cases — added no major penalties for the program or for former head coach Rick Pitino for their part in a national college basketball pay-for-play scandal, in a decision made public Thursday morning.
Louisville will receive two years of probation, a $5,000 fine and some minor recruiting restrictions (2-week ban on unofficial visits, 7-day reduction in in-person recruiting days) for its part in a scheme that in 2017 agreed to pay Bowen $100,000 if he attended U of L and signed with Adidas after going pro.
In its decision, the IARP panel said that it could not find sufficient proof that adidas was acting in U of L's interests, or that the university had a role in its actions.
"The hearing panel concluded that the case record did not provide sufficient or credible information to conclude that the apparel company (Adidas) was a representative of (Louisville's) athletics interests," an IARP release said this morning.
Louisville had faced enhanced penalties as an NCAA repeat offender, with this infraction coming on the heels of the school going on probation for the Katina Powell sex-for-recruits scandal, violations that also ended up with the school vacating its 2013 NCAA Championship and 2012 Final Four appearance and numerous other victories.
After the FBI showed up on campus on Sept. 26, 2017, and announced indictments of college basketball figures around the nation (but none from U of L), the school immediately placed Pitino and then-athletics director Tom Jurich on leave, soon voting to dismiss them both.
U of L later settled with Jurich, paying him money owed through his contract and terming the end of his employment as a mutual decision.
Pitino also sued the university but later dropped the lawsuit.
For Pitino, the ruling was nearly complete vindication. The NCAA, according to the 105-page decision, had actually made the argument that Pitino was "too strict on compliance for it to be effective." The IARP rejected that argument, and actually stated the opposite in its ruling, that Pitino had fostered an adequate atmosphere of compliance.
For Pitino, the ruling also clears the way for a chance to finish his career. After Louisville, he coached professionally in Greece for a time, before returning to college basketball at Iona, where he immediately led the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament.
While U of L basketball escapes additional penalties, the cost to the program in reputation, following, recruiting and on-the-court success has been high.
The Cardinals just missed the NCAA Tournament in 2018 under acting coach David Padgett. Following the season, new athletics director Vince Tyra hired Chris Mack as head coach.
And Louisville's case wound on. At first delayed because federal officials asked the NCAA not to proceed while its own investigation and trials were ongoing, the NCAA then was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tyra made the call to pursue a resolution through the IARP instead of the NCAA's usual infractions process. The IARP was designed to streamline the hearing and resolution of such cases but instead proceeded slowly on the few cases it was given. Louisville's was the third to be decided by the group, all without major penalties.
He deserves credit for his handling of the case through most of its run through the NCAA process.
"We provided a plan to the NCAA for immediate and strong change within our department, a voice of reason on the allegations, and the need for change on how the NCAA manages penalties globally," Tyra said. " . . . I would like to think our approach was good for all of college athletics and not just Louisville. The time lag for the decision wasn’t ideal and very damaging to the program, but Kenny Payne and our athletic leadership will take it from here and put Louisville back in its place as an elite program. They now have definitive answers in hand. A valuable asset."
Louisville's case was also delayed by more minor NCAA allegations, these stemming from assistant coach Dino Gaudio, who revealed that the program had sent out improper recruiting materials and used unauthorized persons to participate in practice scrimmages. Those allegations left Mack in an exposed position regarding his future with the school, as did his handling of Gaudio's departure after the Cardinals did not make the NCAA Tournament following the 2020-21 season.
Mack informed his longtime friend that he wasn't going to retain him as an assistant, and Gaudio was incensed, threatening to go to the NCAA with allegations of wrongdoing if he wasn't paid money. Gaudio pled guilty to extortion in federal court in August of last year. Mack was suspended for six games to start the season for failing to follow university guidelines in his handling of the Gaudio situation, which included a secretly recorded conversation of an angry Gauido threatening the coach.
By January, with the team struggling, Mack negotiated a buyout from U of L and left the program. Assistant coach Mike Pegues finished the season, in which the Cardinals posted a record of 13-19.
The NCAA found that violations did occur in using impermissible personnel in practice and improper personalized recruiting materials, but said that the violations were "isolated and inadvertent" and did not find Mack in violation of the NCAA's head coach accountability bylaws.
After the season, Heird hired former Cardinal Kenny Payne as coach. But with NCAA allegations still hanging over the program, Payne has found the going difficult in recruiting.
"It's been five-plus years," Louisville athletics director Josh Heird said recently. "Think about that. Five years. It's hard to believe. And so, whatever the decision is, there will be some relief. Once we know what the results are, I absolutely think that it'll be full steam ahead, moving forward with Kenny Payne and the program."
Former Louisville assistant coaches Kenny Johnson and Jordan Fair, both of whom were alleged to have had direct participation in elements of the adidas scheme, received two-year show cause penalties from the NCAA, which means that any penalties to come to them also will go to the schools where they work for a 2-year period.
While U of L remained cooperative with NCAA investigators throughout the process, Tyra vowed to fight allegations that the university believed were unfair. Its argument to the IARP was that rogue adidas officials were acting more on their own behalf than the university's with their pay-to-play scheme.
The school raised eyebrows earlier this year when it hired attorney Neal Katyal, a partner in the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Hogan Lovells, who charged the school $2,465 per hour.
But that move illustrated the stakes of this outcome for the university, and perhaps the end result justifies the expense.
Regardless, Heird said last week he believes the school can move forward quickly.
"I just want it behind us," he said. "I want our program to move forward. I want Kenny (Payne) and his program to be able to move forward, put this behind us and just make sure that we never have to deal with it again."
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