By Dalton Ray —

The NCAA’s Committee of Infractions has denied the University of Louisville’s appeal in regards to the men’s basketball sex scandal. The university must forfeit all wins from 2011-12 season to 2014-15 season, including 2013 national title and 2012 Final Four.

“… Because of the serious nature of the violations resulted in the participation of ineligible student-athletes, the vacation of records penalty was appropriate,” the NCAA statement read.

In addition to the loss of wins, the university must pay a fine upwards of $600,000.

Louisville must also return all shared conference revenue from the 2012-15 seasons.

“The university, under prior leadership, never made excuses for what took place. There was an immediate recognition of the facts, serious self0imposed penalties, extraordinary cooperation and the strengthening of and creation of policies and procedures to make sure this never happened again.

“Under the NCAA’s own rules, such cooperation should have played a factor in the determining the severity of the punishment. Instead, however, that was ignored,” Postel said.

The COI said the scandal at the university is unprecedented. They argued, “the vacation of records and financial penalties were based on serious intentional and numerous violations orchestrated by an institutional staff member for nearly four years.”

The ruling noted U of L, “conceded the student-athletes received improper benefits during the oral argument.” Because they received improper benefits, they were therefore ineligible to compete in NCAA competition.

Brought to light by self-proclaimed escort Katina Powell in the fall of 2015, former Louisville assistant coach Andre McGee paid Powell to organize parties for players and high school prospects. These parties allegedly ranged from strip shows to sexual acts.

After investigating internally, the university announced self-imposed sanctions in February 2016, including a postseason ban for 2015-16 season.

The NCAA ruled in October 2016 that the school found four violations in their year-long investigation of the program. The biggest charge in that finding was former coach Rick Pitino slapped with failure to monitor staff, which the university chose to fight in January of 2017.

In the June 2017, the NCAA’s final rule included a four-year probation, an in-season suspension of Pitino and the potential loss of 108 regular season wins and 15 postseason wins from 2011-15.

Two weeks after the decision by the NCAA, U of L announced they would appeal the ruling.

Louisville will remove all NCAA 2013 national title items from its campus.

You can follow Dalton Ray on Twitter @dray5477.

Photos by Dalton Ray / The Louisville Cardinal