Louisville basketball receives NCAA Notice of Allegations

After much waiting and speculating, Louisville has received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA regarding the school's men's basketball program.

This Notice results from a 12-month investigation by the NCAA and the University of Louisville in response to reports of alleged violations that occurred within the men's basketball program. The Notice of Allegations signifies the end of the initial review and fact-finding period of this process.

Louisville has been charged with four Level One violations, which are the most serious types of violations according to the NCAA's infrastructure. U of L was not, however, hit with a Failure to Monitor or Lack of Institutional Control charge, the two most significant allegations that can be made by the NCAA.

In the NOA, the NCAA alleges that Andre McGee, who was hit with two Level One charges, "arranged for and/or provided impermissible inducements, offers and/or extra benefits in the form of adult entertainment, sex acts and/or cash" to at least 17 recruits or current players, two AAU coaches and one friend of a recruit. The value of those impermissible benefits, according to the NCAA, totaled at least $5,400.

The NCAA also charged Rick Pitino with a Level One violation for failure to adequately monitor McGee, a charge which U of L has already said it will contest. Should Louisville not argue its case effectively, Pitino could be open to receiving the same type of in-game suspension that the NCAA gave Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and SMU's Larry Brown.

The fourth and final Level One violation centers around former program assistant Brandon Williams, who is charged with refusing to provide information relevant to the NCAA's investigation.

U of L now has 90 days to respond to the notice and dispute any of the NCAA's findings, and then the NCAA will have 60 days to respond to that response. Once that back-and-forth has taken place, the case will then go to the NCAA's committee on infractions, which will make a decision on whether or not any additional penalties will be levied against the Cardinal basketball program.

On Feb. 5, Louisville announced a self-imposed postseason ban that kept a formidable 2015-16 Cardinal basketball team fro participating in both the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. The program announced additional self-imposed sanctions in April, reducing scholarships and recruiting visits and contacts by staff members in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

You can read the (redacted) NOA in its entirety right here.