Death to Louisville?

ESPN--The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced federal corruption charges against four NCAA assistant basketball coaches on Tuesday.

The three-year FBI probe focused on coaches being paid tens of thousands of dollars to steer NBA-bound players toward sports agents, financial advisers and apparel companies.

Each of the coaches is charged with bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, honest services fraud conspiracy, honest service fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and Travel Act conspiracy. The U.S. Department of Justice said each of the coaches faces a maximum sentence of 80 years in prison.

In the second set of allegations, authorities say that James Gatto, on behalf of an unnamed "sportswear company," funneled "six-figure payments" to three players, who, in exchange, committed to play for particular college programs affiliated with the company. Gatto is the director of global sports marketing for Adidas.

In perhaps the least surprising news story ever, multiple NCAA coaches have been arrested and charged with accepting bribes and paying players. In fact the only surprising aspect of this story is that it took the FBI two years to file charges and that Kentucky and John Calipari were not among the schools charged.

As of Sept. 27, four NCAA Basketball assistant coaches have been arrested and Louisville Coach Rick Pitino has been placed on unpaid administrative leave along with Louisville AD Tom Jurich.

This is not the first time Pitino has been at the center of controversy involving the NCAA and impermissible benefits given to players. Pitino has been followed by controversy since his days as the head coach and Kentucky. In fact, Louisville was placed on probation just three months ago by the NCAA.

If the findings against Louisville prove true the Cardinals could be facing the NCAA as a repeat offender. And let’s just say if you’re an NCAA athletic program, you do not want to be found as a repeat offender.

The last time a Division I program was found to be a repeat offender, the NCAA handed down the “Death Penalty” and the SMU Mustangs football team was disbanded for entire year and all home games the following year were cancelled, not to mention to loss of 55 scholarships and an extended probation period.

Now if the findings against Louisville are in fact accurate, and all signs point to them being accurate, by rule the Louisville Cardinals should be handed the Death Penalty by the NCAA. I, however, find it difficult to believe that such a penalty will be handed down. The reason? Money.

Louisville is one of the “blue bloods” of college basketball. According to sports economist Patrick Rishe, Louisville is the most profitable basketball team in the NCAA, bringing in more than $40 million per year. So it’s hard to imagine a reality in which the NCAA suspends its most profitable basketball team for an entire year. Not only would the decision hurt the NCAA and the school financially, but it could devastate the City of Louisville. There’s arguably no other city in the country quite as passionate about the sport of basketball or its basketball team as Louisville, Kentucky.

So no, I can’t see Louisville being given the Death Penalty. What I can see if the firing of Coach Pitino. Sorry Rick but playing the “shocked” head coach anytime allegations are brought against your team only works so many times. I think the saying goes “fool me once shame on you, but fool me – you can’t get fooled again.” In addition to the firing of Pitino and Louisville AD Tom Jurich, the school will almost certainly lose scholarships and be handed an extended probation period.

Similar to Louisville, the schools at which other assistant coaches were charged by the FBI will almost certainly be placed on probation and lose scholarships.

It’s time to get real when it comes to impermissible benefits in collegiate sports. As long as players are earning the school millions of dollars, while they aren’t even allowed to be taken to lunch by the coach, athletes are going to continue to look for deals “under the table.” And as long as athletes are willing to take these under the table deals there will almost always be an AAU coach or an assistant coach lurking and waiting to exploit these athletes for their own benefits.

Mark my words, the days when collegiate athletes are “paid to play” are not too far into the future.