Louisville was looking for mercy Tuesday. It didn’t get any.
The NCAA has announced Louisville must vacate its 2013 men’s basketball national championship as well as its 2012 Final Four appearance after the NCAA denied the school’s appeal of its penalties.
The Cardinals were punished last June for their role in a highly-publicized sex scandal, centered around allegations that a former Louisville staffer arranged for strippers to entertain players and recruits during a four-year period from 2010 to 2014.
That punishment also included the suspension of head coach Rick Pitino, who later was placed on administrative leave in September along with athletic director Tom Jurich.
Louisville is the first Division I school to forfeit a national title in the Final Four era, according to ESPN.
The NCAA’s ruling also upheld some other minor penalties: The Cardinals have been placed on probation for four years and will be hit with scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions. Louisville still is eligible for future NCAA tournaments, though.
Louisville’s 2013 squad finished with a 35-5 record and defeated Michigan in the 2013 national title game for what at the time was its third championship in school history. Still no word on what Pitino will do with that tattoo, though.
