On Tuesday, the NCAA announced the University of Lousiville lost their appeal over sanctions imposed against their men's basketball program. As a result, "the penalties are affirmed," according to the NCAA Division I Infractions Appeals Committee.

According to ESPN, for the first time in modern-Division I men's basketball history, a team will have their championship formally stripped away. But the Cardinals have lost more than their 2013 national title.

The institution still must pay financial penalties, but also all of the program's regular season and tournament wins between 2011-2015, including their 2012 Final Four appearance, are now officially erased from the record books.

The reason for the "Draconian penalties," as previously described by Louisville, is because ineligible student-athletes played for the program during the 2011-2015 period.

Brief review of violations and penalties

According to the NCAA, these specific student-athletes lost their eligibility to compete after "A team staff member arranged striptease dances and acts of prostitution for enrolled student-athletes and prospects," multiple times over multiple years.

The Infraction Appeals Committee believes "the former operations director knew that his actions violated NCAA legislation. The student-athletes who participated in the striptease dances, prostitution and "tipping" of the strippers became ineligible for competition." The committee formally added in their public statement "They knew or should have known that their actions were contrary to NCAA legislation."

As for the financial repercussions, according to the NCAA, "the institution shall return to the NCAA all of the monies it has received to date through conference revenue sharing for its appearances in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournaments."

Fans, alumni, analysts will never forget championship

While today is a sad day for Louisville, social media was flooded with support by alumni, fans, and sports analysts following the announcement.

Also, Louisville's interim president Greg Postel responded to the news by disagreeing with the Infractions Appeals Committee's decision.

As reported by ESPN's Mark Schlabach, "I cannot say this strongly enough: We believe the NCAA is simply wrong," Postel said.

"We disagree with the NCAA ruling for reasons we stated in our appeal. And we made a strong case -- based on NCAA precedent -- that supported our argument."Louisville's interim athletics director Vince Tyra said in a news conference following the NCAA's announcement "We'll remove the official recognition, but it won't remove it from our hearts and minds."

While Louisville is in today's headlines for violations of the NCAA legislation, other programs may soon be named as being guilty of similar or even worse violations.

In September of 2017, Lousiville was also announced to be involved in a separate financial scandal involving Adidas, which included offering money to recruits. The FBI is currently reviewing the case and may announce up to fifty other programs being involved.
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