Louisville Receives NCAA Notice of Allegations for Hooker Scandal

When the news came out that the NCAA was going to release the Notice of Allegations against Louisville for the hooker scandal, I thought for sure this would be a Friday news dump. However, we get it today and there’s a lot.

First off the biggest takeaway I had from reading the NOA is there’s no charge against Pitino or Louisville for lack of institutional control or that Pitino knew what was going on. That will save the program in the long run as there shouldn’t be a massive fallout because those are the two biggest charges the NCAA can hammer a program with.

What was in the NOA though were four Level One Allegations, including one against Pitino. Let’s start there and what that can mean heading into the season. The NCAA charged Pitino a Level One for failure to adequately monitor Andre McGee – the ringleader of the hooker get togethers. This can lead to a suspension – and likely will. We saw Jim Boeheim and Larry Brown miss nine games a piece last season for a Level One allegation against them. I expect something similar for Pitino.

Now what it can mean going forward is a lack of a successful season makes it easier to get rid of Pitino. This is obviously the second major sex scandal Ricky P has been a part of since he became the head coach of the Cardinals. If – and it’s a major if – Louisville struggles with high expectations, don’t be surprised to see him bolt for another program or Tom Jurich to let him go to try and start with a clean image.

So what exactly does the Notice of Allegations show? Well it alleges McGee “arranged for and/or provided impermissible inducements, offers and/or extra benefits in the form of adult entertainment, sex acts and/or cash” to at least 17 recruits or current players, two AAU coaches and one friend of a recruit. The NCAA says the value of the impermissible benefits, which occurred between December 2010 and April 2014, was “at least $5,400.” The names of the involved recruits, players and AAU coaches in the report have been redacted by Louisville.” The documents also detail 14 strip shows, 11 sex acts and two declined sex acts.

The other Level One Allegations according to Pat Forde of Yahoo are two to Andre McGee and one to former program assistant Brandon Williams. With the Level One Allegation against Pitino – he is subject to a show-clause.

Louisville will have 90 days to respond to the allegations. One thing to remind everyone is this doesn’t mean the case is over or there will be no more penalties. The NCAA can still hand out punishment if they don’t see the self-imposed penalties Louisville gave itself last year enough. There’s a good chance this doesn’t get concluded until after this season, which means we could see penalties possibly starting in the 2017-18 season.

Louisville will have a press conference at noon today responding to the NOA.