Postel met with Pitino and Jurich separately Wednesday morning to inform them of the decision, which comes after allegations that a men’s basketball coach participated with an apparel company and others in a scheme to pay a recruit to come to the university.

That player has been notified that he has been removed from team activities.

“The allegations are serious,” Postel said. “It is vital for this university to strictly adhere to NCAA rules and, of course, federal law. Doing nothing would be a tacit endorsement of potential criminal and unethical behavior.”

Jurich has been suspended with pay, effective immediately, pending the next meeting of the University of Louisville Board of Trustees. Pitino has been suspended without pay, effective immediately.

Postel said he will work quickly to name an interim athletic director and, together, they will name an interim head men’s basketball coach. He said he hopes to announce those appointments within 48 hours. Decisions regarding coaches named during the investigation will be made by the interim athletic director.

Postel stressed that the university will cooperate fully with law enforcement and NCAA officials.

The press conference is available below: 

Penalties announced include a suspension for head basketball coach Rick Pitino from the first five ACC games of the 2017-18 season, a four-year probation (June 15, 2017 through June 14, 2021) and a “vacation of basketball records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible from December 2010 to July 2014.” This could vacate 108 regular-season games and 15 NCAA tournament wins.

UofL’s interim president Greg Postel announced today the university will appeal the NCAA’s decision. Below is Dr. Postel’s statement:

“… The committee has accepted our self-imposed penalties and levied additional severe penalties that we believe are excessive.

“The entire UofL community is saddened by what took place. It never should have happened, and that is why the school acted to severely penalize itself in 2016. Today, however, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions went beyond what we consider to be fair and reasonable. We intend to appeal all aspects of the penalties.

“The person responsible for these activities, Andre McGee, long ago left the university, and he has yet to cooperate with investigating officials. We are disappointed that he was not cooperative.

“In contrast, UofL did cooperate. We wanted the NCAA Enforcement Staff to uncover what happened. We have been open and transparent throughout this process.

“The NCAA knew how seriously the university treated this matter from the beginning. Once we had the facts and recognized what took place, we did the right thing by taking responsibility and imposing severe penalties on ourselves. We believe the penalties imposed today are unfair to the UofL community and our current and former student-athletes, many of whom have already paid a heavy price for actions that did not involve them. This ruling is also unfair to Coach Pitino, who we believe could not have known about the illicit activities.

“This has been a very difficult period for UofL. I am confident that what happened here will never happen again. We have changed our recruitment procedures, imposed additional protections in the dorms and the staff has received additional training. It saddens me that these events took place. Nevertheless, the Committee on Infractions has gone too far and taken actions that are unwarranted. We will appeal.”