It’s funny how the hammer of justice in college sports always seems to take swings at the group whose interests the system claims to protect first.
As I watched Louisville president James Ramsey on Friday announce a self-imposed postseason ban for his men’s basketball program amid an investigation into an escort scandal, I couldn’t help but think about the players watching the same hastily constructed news conference.
Many of these players had never met Andre McGee, the former Cardinals assistant coach alleged to have worked with self-proclaimed escort Katina Powell to arrange dancing parties and sex for recruits inside a dormitory on the Louisville campus.
Certainly Damion Lee and Trey Lewis — graduate transfers who joined Louisville last summer, long after McGee had moved on from the program — didn’t know the guy. And they likely don’t know Katina Powell from Olympic sprinter Asafa Powell.
“We don’t deserve this,” Lewis told reporters Friday. “This team doesn’t deserve this. We worked very hard and we put ourselves in a position to fulfill our dreams, and that was to play in the NCAA Tournament, and we feel like that’s been taken away.”
Louisville now knows that at least some of the scandalous claims penned by Powell in her tell-all book published last year have merit. It’s why the school announced this punishment in the middle of the Cardinals’ 19-4 season, one that was undoubtedly heading toward the NCAA Tournament, likely as a high seed.
The hope of those behind the decision is that the NCAA will exercise some leniency after seeing the school take accountability — if you want to call it that — for the rules that were broken on its grounds.
But who is supposed to be taking accountability for the players? Why are they the ones who always have to take the brunt of the punishment in these situations?
Louisville coach Rick Pitino will continue to make his multimillion-dollar salary this season, his only monetary punishment being the missed bonuses that coaches collect for reaching various levels of the postseason. The president of the university? The athletic director? They’ll be fine too.
As for Lee, Lewis and the rest of the Cardinals who had nothing to do with the scandal? They miss out on the ultimate goal for a Division I college basketball player: reaching the NCAA Tournament. The exposure on that grand stage that could help put them in position for future earnings in the sport, that is now gone too.
Punish schools financially for allowing gross violations of rules to occur on their campuses. Heavily fine coaches overseeing these programs. (To his credit, Pitino suggested the same thing.) And, yes, the players who have involvement in these actions should bear a brunt of the justice as well.
But for those athletes going to class, training, playing and staying out of trouble? There is no justice for them in this broken system.
Nick Kosmider: 303-954-1516, nkosmider@ denverpost.com or @nickkosmider
