Earlier this week, the NCAA upheld the ruling that the Louisville Cardinals Men’s basketball team must vacate all wins from 2011-2015. This punishment stems from Louisville staff members paying for strippers and hookers for potential players. In case you’re not aware: that’s a big no no.
Listen, I’m not going to defend Louisville or Rick Pitino. We’ve seen enough evidence over the last several years to know that Pitino is a great coach, but a total slimeball. He deserved to be fired well before he was actually let go. Men’s basketball at Louisville is basically multiple scandals stitched together into one dysfunctional program: improper benefits, strippers, prostitutes, bribery, and corruption just to name a few. Seriously, this is like 1980’s Miami football.
Knowing all of this, the punishment for Louisville is still ridiculous. Vacating wins and championships in sports is inherently stupid. The NCAA is basically saying, “Hey, you know those Final Four appearances and that National Championship in 2013? Well, you hired strippers, so we’re going to pretend like it didn’t happen. We’re just going to pretend like there wasn’t a national champion in 2013. There was a tournament, but oddly enough, nobody won.” Isn’t that ridiculous?
The basics for vacating wins are that the NCAA will hope we all will forget. Newsflash folks: this is the internet age, and the internet forgets nothing. Seriously, if you research the 2013 National Champions, it’ll still say Louisville. Granted, it’ll have the little [vacated] next to the name, but does that really matter? Do we now have to work out who the actual champion would be? Wouldn’t all six teams that Louisville defeated have a claim to the title? (My guess is that UCF will probably claim it.)
Now, we’re expected to think, “well, yeah, they hired strippers. Take those wins away.” Louisville has already taken down their championship banner, thus “erasing” history. (Personally, I wish they would have kept it and stamped [vacated because hookers] on it. Or sold it for charity. Or both.) Here’s the kicker though: none of it matters. Everyone will still know they won, with or without hookers. The best punishments would have been firing the staff with a show-cause penalty, levying a stiff penalty, and future tournament bans. Do you know why those would work? Because they’re real. Vacating wins is the NCAA flexing a perceived muscle, attempting to erase past success instead of enforcing future punishment.
You can claim a championship you didn’t win, but not one you did win. Sports, amiright?
Poppa Bear is the Lead SEC Analyst for the SoBros Network, and serves as our resident expert on the human anatomy, fixin’ stuff, and tomatoes. Follow on Twitter:@SoBroPoppaBear
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