Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Louisville board votes to begin Rick Pitino’s termination

mfV0zPsUIv2X
At worst, Rick Pitino will be known as the face of corruption in college basketball. At best, he'll be remembered as a Hall of Famer.

The University of Louisville Athletic Association’s board voted on Monday to begin the process to terminate men’s basketball head coach Rick Pitino “for cause.”

The unanimous vote to attempt to terminate Pitino for cause would mean that the school wouldn’t have to pay their former head coach his $44 million buyout.

“The board requested of me and authorized me to initiate the process to terminate for cause, as defined in Coach Pitino’s employment contract,” Louisville’s interim President Greg Postel said after the meeting.

Following an FBI crackdown into college basketball corruption last week, Pitino was placed on unpaid administrative leave after he was allegedly tied to a plan to bring McDonald’s All-American Brian Bowen to Louisville using $100,000 with cash coming from adidas executive Jim Gatto.

While Pitino is not directly named in the FBI’s release, he is reportedly “Coach-2" in the FBI complaint. “Coach-2" is mentioned nine times in the report, including three phone calls with an adidas executive in the days leading up to Bowen’s commitment.

Pitino told the Louisville Courier-Journal on Monday that he had “[zero] to do with it and I’ll be vindicated.”

According to WDRB.com, attorneys for Pitino officially served a breach of contract notice to Louisville on Monday. Since the school believes it is firing Pitino for cause while only paying for 10 days of additional salary, Pitino is going for a lot more money.

Expect a long legal battle for the millions of dollars in Rick Pitino’s Louisville buyout.

(H/t: Myron Medcalf of ESPN)