Louisville is toast.

[Chin Diesel]

Buried in one of those stories was something I found odd. UL was paying athlete's tuition from an athletic department fund, but not scholarship athletes. They have had extraordinary success in a variety of sports for years now, and from what I could tell, were able to load up limited scholarship sports with athletes getting a free ride and not counting against the scholarship limits.

Totally legal. They pay the university for grants and loans.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Confused as to why you posted this story as an indictment of guilt, Louisville is gonna get dinged because of what is in the FBI investigation, not by what was negotiated with Adidas/Pitino. All of these coaches get money from the schools sneaker deals.

The optics are usually worse than the crime itself. The fact that there is such a large, explicit connection between Pitino and Adidas make it difficult for Slick Rick to claim he was unaware of the payoffs.

 

[MadDogRevival]

Couldn't have happened to a nice athletic program.

The want of an "r" took you from voicing the populist opinion to shady creeper.

 

[upstater]

So, what you're saying is, the Law of Unintended Consequences has claimed another victim.

Used to be under the table payments were an NCAA eligibility issue with an indifferent federal gov't not really caring about cash payments.

Technically a crime for not declaring income and paying taxes on that income.

Full cost of scholarship requires filling out a FAFSA and illegally hiding the money.

Now you have full blown federal crimes on the books because besides the under the table payments they were trying to double dip and get legitimate payments too.

Yes

 

[UConnJim]

The optics are usually worse than the crime itself. The fact that there is such a large, explicit connection between Pitino and Adidas make it difficult for Slick Rick to claim he was unaware of the payoffs.

I went back and looked at the old Adidas contract that Louisville signed. It seems it was common knowledge that Pitino had a contract with Adidas that was paying him ~$1 million per year and it appeared that his contract was rolled into the school contract when the deal was signed, probably to make Louisville look like it was signing a big contract with Adidas.

From a 2014 article:

"But if the deal includes Rick Pitino's deal with adidas -- in the neighborhood of $1 million annually -- that would break down to about $350,000 a year for the university itself in cash and then about $6.2 million in services and "product," equipment, uniforms, marketing, and other benefits, depending on how you value those."

CRAWFORD | For Louisville, adidas deal about more than the clothes

 

[2Infinity]

The optics are usually worse than the crime itself. The fact that there is such a large, explicit connection between Pitino and Adidas make it difficult for Slick Rick to claim he was unaware of the payoffs.

I don't think Rick was even aware of the Adidas payments he was receiving. He never really looked at his bank account statements, his wife handled the finances, so he's just finding out now how "lucky" he was.

 

[Stinger92860]

I don't think Rick was even aware of the Adidas payments he was receiving. He never really looked at his bank account statements, his wife handled the finances, so he's just finding out now how "lucky" he was.

He is shocked! Never knew he made that kind of money.

 

[Mano]

The want of an "r" took you from voicing the populist opinion to shady creeper.

Nice!