What comes next for Louisville?
— -- It could have been far worse for Louisville.
The NCAA released its notice of allegations on Thursday, and there wasn't anything that we hadn't already heard over the past year since allegations surfaced that a former staff member paid strippers to dance for and perform sexual acts with men's basketball recruits.
Nothing new except for a finding that a former graduate assistant named Brandon Williams refused to turn over his phone records.
That's it.
There was the "failure to monitor" charge against Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino, but it concerned his responsibility to monitor former director of basketball operations Andre McGee, who was at the center of the controversy. Ultimately, there was no allegation that Pitino had any knowledge of these parties at Minardi Hall on campus -- and that was as important as anything else that came out of the NOA.
"This is a huge victory for Pitino and Louisville," said one person close to the situation.
There was also no charge for failure to promote an atmosphere of compliance with Pitino -- which has been nearly standard for most of the coaches' control cases of late -- and no current or former assistants aside from McGee were accused on being involved or having knowledge of the misdoings.
"Great day," added another close to the Louisville program.
We won't see the penalties of this case land until spring of 2017 at the earliest because of the lengthy NCAA process, but here's what we can expect, according to one attorney who has familiarity dealing with the NCAA.
1. Pitino will likely get hit with a suspension by the NCAA. It could be the same nine-game sentence that both former SMU coach Larry Brown and current Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim received, but those were different because they involved academic fraud cases. Some believe Pitino's penalty will be fewer than nine games. If Pitino does get a suspension, it won't come until the 2017-18 campaign.
2. Louisville already self-imposed a postseason ban, which took place last season. It's unlikely that the NCAA will hit the program with another postseason ban, especially since the school wasn't tagged with a failure to monitor and/or a lack of institutional control.
3.?McGee will get hit with a lengthy show-cause penalty by the NCAA that will likely prohibit him from coaching in college basketball again. He was found to have given "impermissible inducements," offering "extra benefits in the form of adult entertainment, sex acts and/or cash" at the campus dorm from 2010 to 2014 totaling at least $5,400.
4.?In addition to the postseason ban, the school also took away two scholarships, recruiting days and also a couple of official visits. While it's unlikely that the NCAA will hit the program with another year of a postseason ban, it wouldn't be shocking to see the NCAA hit Louisville with more scholarship limitations and recruiting restrictions.
5. Probation for three to four years. This is largely irrelevant.
Louisville now has 90 days to respond. The Committee on Infractions hearing will take place in the spring of 2017, and then the penalties will be rendered a couple months thereafter. Look for Pitino to attempt to show that there were no red flags for him to spot-check -- which was one of the allegations surrounding his inability to monitor McGee -- in hopes of avoiding any suspension.
Now Pitino can return to coaching and the cloud has been, for the most part, lifted. Sure, his legacy took another hit through this entire episode. He may suffer additional penalties from the NCAA, but they are highly unlikely to be debilitating or the kind that would force him to be jettisoned or even force early retirement.
There will still be those who will debate whether Pitino should have known about these parties, and it's a valid question to ask. But Pitino, Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich and the Cardinals fans can take a breath now and look forward to the college hoops season, which is just a few weeks away.
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