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- Jan 31, 2014
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SMU is not the standard.
And quite frankly, you don't appear to understand what's happened here.
The standard for the death penalty is a second major violation within five years of the announcement of a previous penalty.
Louisville, in July, was given four years of probation, scholarship reductions and recruiting limitations for four level one violations. An assistant coach was given a ten-year show cause and Pitino was charged with a failure to monitor and given a five-game ACC suspension. They also had to forfeit games played with ineligible players and it turns out one of those games was the national championship.
Between the time that Louisville met with the infractions committee and the infractions report was released, they arranged with an undercover FBI agent to deliver $100,000 to one recruit and another five-figure payment to be delivered to a second recruit.
Again.
Five weeks after Louisville met with the infractions committee regarding hookergate, they had two coaches recorded arranging over $100,000 worth of bribes to recruits.
The standard here should be late-80s Kansas. They came the closest by all accounts to receiving the death penalty. (Baylor earned it and did get a half-year penalty., but was given some credit for taking quick action once they realized what was happening. It also bears mention that the first major violation that could have triggered the death penalty was against their tennis program. Louisville and Kansas committed major violations in basketball so I think the KU case is instructive.)
The penalties that brought Kansas to the brink were no where near as severe as Louisville's - compare the two and you come up with two conclusions...
1) Louisville is in dire jeopardy of losing a season.
2) Pitino's show cause might outlive him.
I fully understand what happened and I agree with your version of events. I still think they will not get the death penalty, but something just short. Maybe something similar to Baylor.
Frankly, I hope I'm wrong, as Louisville's program deserves to be shut down completely for a couple of years.