Louisville must vacate 2013 men’s title, NCAA denies appeal

Louisville must vacate its 2013 men’s basketball title following an NCAA appeals panel’s decision to uphold sanctions against the men’s program in the sex scandal case.

The Cardinals will have to vacate 123 victories including the championship, and return some $600,000 in conference revenue from the 2012-15 NCAA Tournaments.

The decision announced on Tuesday by the governing body’s Infraction Appeals Committee ruled that the NCAA has the au- thority to take away championships for what it considers major rule violations. It also refuted Louisville’s position that the NCAA exceeded its boundaries and didn’t follow its own precedent established in other cases and said in an eight-page decision that ended, “the penalties are upheld.”

“I cannot say this strongly enough: We believe the NCAA is simply wrong,” Louisville interim President Dr. Greg Postel said in a statement. “We disagree with the NCAA ruling for reasons we clearly stated in our appeal. And we made a strong case - based on NCAA precedent - that supported our argument.”

Louisville now must forfeit its third NCAA title, victories and income from 2012-15, part of the timeframe during which the violations occurred. The decision culminates the governing body’s investigation that followed allegations in a 2015 book by escort Katina Powell that former Cardinals basketball staffer Andre Mcgee hired her and other dancers to strip and have sex with recruits.

“From Day One, the university has admitted that the actions of the former operations director and any others involved under previous leadership were offen- sive and inexcusable,” Postel said in the statement. “That is why we apologized immediately, cooperated fully with the NCAA, self-imposed penalties that were appropriate to the offences and made significant changes to ensure incidents like this never happen again.

“Under the NCAA’S own rules, this co-operation should have been a factor in the severity of the punishment. Instead, it was ignored.”

The school’s own investigation into the allegation revealed that violations occurred and resulted in a self-imposed post-season ban nearly two years ago.