Louisville Basketball Avoids Major Penalties in NCAA IARP Ruling

The full sanctions were released Thursday morning.

Louisville men’s basketball avoided major sanctions after an NCAA probe into the program stemming from a 2017 FBI investigation into corruption in college basketball, as the NCAA’s Independent Accountability Review Process (IARP) officially released its decision on Thursday morning. Sports Illustrated‘s Pat Forde reported earlier in the day that the program would receive a fairly minor set of sanctions, confirming a report by CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander.

Louisville avoids a postseason ban, and former coaches Rick Pitino—now at Iona—and Chris Mack both avoid NCAA penalties. The program will pay a $5,000 fine and take a minor reduction in available recruiting days, as well as two years of probation.

A pair of former Louisville assistants have been hit with penalties. Kenny Johnson, now at Rhode Island, will serve a two-year show-cause penalty that keeps him from recruiting for two years. Jordan Fair, now at Oldsmar Christian School in Florida, also has a two-year show-cause penalty.

As previously reported by Norlander, the Independent Accountability Review Process (IARP) board determined that Louisville had only committed one Level I violation, along with some more minor Level III violations, leading to a fairly lenient sentence.

After the 2017 scandal broke, Louisville fired Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino and longtime athletic director Tom Jurich. There were some concerns that Pitino could be in NCAA jeopardy at Iona upon today’s release, but in the release, the IARP says that “the hearing panel determined no violation by former head coach No. 1 [Pitino] occurred given that he demonstrated he promoted an atmosphere of compliance.”

The full IARP decision can be read here.

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