Rick Pitino has officially been fired by Louisville for cause, meaning the school will not have to pay him the money he is owed on his contract.
Pitino has been on unpaid administrative leave since September after Louisville was tied to an FBI investigation into bribery and wire fraud in the college basketball world. One of the allegations is that a Louisville recruit was paid $100,000 to attend the school.
Pitino, who has been the Cardinals’ head coach since 2001, denied any wrongdoing. In a hearing on Monday, Pitino’s attorneys said the coach “had no part — active, passive or through willful ignorance” in the FBI’s allegations.
The 65-year-old coach, who helped Louisville win a national championship in 2013, is under contract to make $44 million through the 2025-26 season. The athletic board’s investigation was to see whether Pitino could be fired for cause, which is the difference in him being owed the money remaining on his contract or not.
This is the third embarrassing ordeal in which he has been a part. He was also part of an extortion attempt in 2009, the result of an affair he’d had. Louisville also put itself on a postseason ban as punishment for a sex parties scandal that Pitino also denied any knowledge or involvement in.
