When Louisville self-imposed a 2016 postseason ban as punishment for the basketball program’s recently uncovered sex scandal, everyone’s first thought was about the current Cardinals players. As usual, active athletes were being punished for the athletic department’s prior crimes.
Apparently Rick Pitino agrees. In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis, the Louisville coach advocated for a response that would greater punish the school as opposed to this year’s players.
SI: You said in your press conference after Saturday’s win over Boston College that you did not believe postseason bans were fair. Why do you feel that way?
RP: The system is broken, there’s no question about it. Now, if this team were responsible for this, then they don’t deserve to play in the tournament. But if you’re on Wall Street and your corporation does something wrong, the SEC comes in and fines you. My opinion is the school should be fined $10 million. They shouldn’t be allowed to collect any money from the tournament. The coach should have to take a hit in his salary, 20% or 50% or whatever. The kids should not be penalized, but Tom has no choice. He has to comply.
SI: Wouldn’t it be more fair to the current players to put the postseason ban in place for 2017? That way the seniors could play this year, and the younger players could transfer if they want.
RP: I don’t make that decision. Tom has to go by the rules. When he knew about the violation, he couldn’t say, “We’re not going to jail now, we’re going in six months.” This is what the NCAA wants every university to do. They don’t want you to take the penalty down the road.
Pitino is right that the postseason ban is unfair to current players, but his proposed solution doesn’t actually punish the basketball program. When Davis suggests a 2017 postseason ban, which would give current players a chance to transfer, the coach dodges the question and blames the NCAA, even though Louisville chose to impose these sanctions on themselves.
The most just punishment for Louisville would seem to be a future postseason ban and scholarship reduction, which would give the players on the roster now and committed for next season an opportunity to go elsewhere if they wished to. That kind of sanction would damage the program without hurting the individual players, who didn’t do anything wrong.
There aren’t really good guys in this story. Not the NCAA, which apparently wants teams to serve punishments immediately, not the Louisville administrators who opted for the postseason ban, and not really Pitino. The coach seems to be using his current players’ misfortune as an opportunity to cry victim about an offense he probably knew about (or at least should have) and advocate for a punishment that would be minimally damaging to his program.
Louisville is 19-5 on the season and would certainly qualify for the NCAA Tournament if it had not banned itself.
