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Why the Louisville Cardinals’ Sex Scandal is the NCAA’s Fault

By Hashim R. Hathaway

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While the focus on this latest scandal is fixed on the Louisville Cardinals and head coach Rick Pitino, the reality is that this is a bed made by NCAA rules.

No, Rick Pitino shouldn’t lose his job.

Let’s get that out of the way right now, because of all the things going on with the current issues with the Louisville Cardinals, the last thing anyone’s arguing is Pitino’s involvement or complicity in the staging or funding of stripper parties at player dorms from 2010-2014.

To be sure, there have been other scandals at other schools and in each of those cases, we’ve called for the dismissal of both head coaches, but something about the Louisville deal feels different.

Both Steve Fisher at San Diego State and Larry Brown at SMU have been at the center of scandal before, and in both cases there were direct ties to impropriety at the program level.

Now an assistant coach providing hookers for recruits and their fathers certainly rings of impropriety, but there is a difference between getting a kid laid (even if some were 17 at the time) and engaging in the fixing of grades or offering “loans” that never need to be paid back.

Of course, all that rings heavily of semantics, and impermissible benefits are impermissible benefits. Ultimately, the most important question that exists involves a) whether or not Pitino was aware, and b) where did the $10,000 that former Louisville grad assistant coach Andre McGee paid to former escort and pimp Katina Powell come from?

Until we have answers to both, it would be hasty to whack Pitino, a coach with a fairly clean record up to this point.

But what really makes this situation different than some of the others that surfaced over the last few months? For our money, a supposed scandal such as this is more indicative of the state of recruiting than anything sinister or in direct violation of any NCAA bylaw.

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Because the NCAA doesn’t allow teams to pay players or give them any real incentive to sign a letter of intent, programs are forced to improvise in order to hold the attention of players who could play at a number of schools, and in some cases, whose presence could tip the scales in a never-ending recruiting war for competitive supremacy.

Whether or not you like it, this is what schools have to resort to, and increasingly, it seems that not only do a number of schools engage in similar behavior, it’s become an expectation from prospects that a school will go all out to grab their attention, even if that means sex is involved.

In the wake of the news from Louisville, former Michigan Fab Five phenom and NBA player Jalen Rose shared some of his experiences from his days as a recruit:

"“I want to paint a picture,” Rose said. “What you see at a bachelor or bachelorette party is what happens on a recruiting visit.”And if you’re not familiar with such parties?“Yes, there is drinking,” Rose said. “Yes, there is members of the opposite sex that are present. Remember, they’re trying to woo me to the campus.“And as a 17-year-old kid, first off, if I’m not getting laid, I’m not coming. I’m not signing. I’m not coming.”"

Again, this isn’t so much a question of right and wrong, but rather a clear acknowledgment of the lengths a program might be willing to go in order to land the recruit of everyone’s dreams.

A top recruit can mean everything to a program, and this is something that branches out like a tree: If the recruit helps the team win, the coaches have job security. If the team wins enough to go to the Final Four, that leads to increased merchandise sales and in many cases, increases in school enrollment.

That’s right, winning is an ecosystem in collegiate athletics, and as such, people will go the extra mile to secure the future of their own jobs and their program. And believe it or not, some of this will happen underneath a coach’s nose, and why wouldn’t it?

Louisville Cardinals
Louisville Cardinals /

Louisville Cardinals

Were it not for the stripper/pimp who wanted to profit, would anyone know? From her point of view, she’s just another vendor, probably no different than the guy who prints up T-shirts or sells snow cones on game day.

Yes, there are issues of legality here, and where there are crimes, they should be prosecuted, but more important than that, this is clearly an indictment of the value and the cost of college sports in our society. If there were a better way, certainly programs would follow that.

In a perfect world, every coach would have the standards of a Bob Knight or a Mike Krzyzewski, and every program would be a square house, and things would be run the right way, but that’s not the culture that exists anymore, and instead of crucifying guys like Pitino, why not take a harder look at an NCAA system whose taciturn rules are leading to up and coming coaches to take risks that could screw everyone in the end.

At least for now, Pitino is defiant, promising not to resign, and good for him. So often we cry for blood at the slightest whiff of impropriety, but it’s time to look at the system as a whole and recognize that when you have millions of dollars at play, and students existing at the short end of the stick, something has to change if there is any reasonable hope that things might get better.

Coaches like Pitino don’t deserve special treatment just because they win, but at the same time, until the system is fixed, it’ll be another program at another time, and forcing him out doesn’t fix a damn thing, it only kicks the can down the road and forces the real cheaters out there to find better ways to cover their tracks.

Where’s the justice in that?

Next: Rick Pitino's Role In Louisville Sex Scandal Still Unfolding

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