Louisville’s 2013 national basketball championship stricken from history

An NCAA appeals committee announced Tuesday that it has rejected the appeal of sanctions against the University of Louisville men’s basketball program and the school must vacate wins during the 2011-12 through 201415 seasons, including its 2013 NCAA Tournament title.

The ruling — a product of a sex scandal at U of L — marks the first time in NCAA history that a men’s basketball national championship has been banished from the record books.

“I cannot say this strongly enough. We believe the NCAA is simply wrong to have made this decision,” Louisville interim president Gregory Postel said during a press conference shortly after the ruling was announced.

The university argued in its appeal last year that the punishment prescribed for the admitted infractions was excessive.

“The Committee on Infractions responded to the appeal by stating the penalties were appropriate due to the serious, intentional and numerous violations orchestrated by a university staff member for nearly four years. It further argued that student-athletes do not have to be culpable for the vacation penalty to be appropriate, and because the serious nature of the violations resulted in the participation of ineligible student-athletes, the vacation of records penalty was appropriate,” the statement from the NCAA said.

The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions last June found that Andre McGee, a Louisville graduate assistant who was later promoted to director of basketball operations, arranged striptease parties and sex acts for recruits and players on campus grounds from 2010 to 2014.

The scandal came to light in October 2015 when Katina Powell, a selfdescribed “escort queen,” released a book, “Breaking Cardinal Rules,” about her arrangement with McGee that alleged she was paid $10,000 over four years to provide women to dance and have sex with Louisville players and recruits at a campus dormitory. Powell ultimately spoke with NCAA investigators. McGee did not cooperate.

In addition to the salacious nature of the allegations, they were deemed an improper benefit and thus the players who were found to have participated were ruled ineligible.