Are Rick Pitino, Louisville under FBI investigation?
By Chris Stone
Charges against an Adidas executive appear to implicate a Louisville recruit
In case you missed it, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office have been engaged in an investigation into the flow of money into college basketball since at least 2015 according to court documents released this morning.
As part of that investigation, Jim Gatto, the director of global sports marketing for basketball at Adidas, was scooped up for allegedly participating in a scheme to defraud universities and make bribe payments to the families of high school student-athletes.
Obviously much of Gatto’s affidavit is coded for anonymity, but one section that notes Gatto and others “conspired to illicitly funnel approximately $100,000 from Company-1 to the family of Player-10, an All-American high school basketball player; to assist one or more coaches at University-6 in securing Player-10’s commitment” caught Twitter’s eye.
UPDATE: Louisville has confirmed the school is under investigation.
Louisville has received official notice that it is under FBI investigation, per release.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) September 26, 2017
University-6 is identified as a public research university in Kentucky with a student body population of approximately 22,640 students. That number is consistent with enrollment numbers at the University of Louisville. It also notes that Player-10 committed to the school on or about June 3, 2017, which is the date that 5-star prospect Brian Bowen committed to the Cardinals.
The affidavit is loaded with the details of how the money allegedly made its way to Bowen’s family via the coaching staff, but now the question obviously shifts to the role that the school and/or head coach Rick Pitino may have played, especially given the recent history there involving the basketball program.
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To be clear: the affidavit filed today issues no charges against Pitino, the school or any of its assistants despite the implications surrounding Bowen. However, the NCAA can be expected to have their say at some point and we’ll see how things end for the head coach and the Cardinals.