As expected, Rick Pitino is out at Louisville. Technically, he is on administrative leave. That, though, is for contract/money reasons. He has to be put on leave for 10 days before he can be fired for Louisville to avoid paying a tremendous buyout. Again, this is more the cumulative effect. Not just for this scandal.

This will end up with lawsuits and an eventual settlement — unless the FBI is given/releases some direct evidence of Pitino’s knowledge before it gets to trial.

The somewhat surprising thing is that Louisville’s AD Tom Jurich is also out. Some reports have said he was told to place Pitino on leave/fire him, but he refused. Others deny it. Regardless, this is a big hit for Louisville as Jurich is widely credited with building the Cards into the athletic program it is today — and how they were able to get into the ACC.

Jurich’s firing also has the effect of triggering a reduction in the buyout their rather nomadic football coach would have to pay if he were to take another job. Bobby Petrino’s buyout to leave goes down from $8+ million to $4.25 million. Why, hello there, Nebraska. What’s new with you? Ole Miss, what’s happening?

Other fallout is that it may not look good down the road for Sean Miller at Arizona. Again, not directly implicated, Book Richardson has been by his side for many years. From Xavier to Arizona. It will be tough to sell that Richardson has been rouge this whole time without an inkling from Miller.

We’ve already talked about the big things that showed up in Richardson’s portion of the filereleased by the government, but there’s something hiding in the Miami portion.

Thanks to our Miami sister site State of the U, there is another huge detail involving Arizona that doesn’t name Richardson or the Wildcat coaching staff.

Arizona appears to have offered a 2018 recruit $150,000 to play in Tucson.

…

While Nike escaped the first day of this, employees of the company’s EYBL grassroots division along with all documents were subpoenaed by the FBI on Wednesday. The investigation has also led to the firing of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino and athletic director Tom Jurich. Louisville is alleged to have payed Brian Bowen $100,000, who has now been suspended indefinitely.

Arizona is also said to have a current player on the roster that was paid in some form according to the FBI report in addition to this $150,000 allegation.

I don’t see Miller fired this year, but the dark, dark cloud is hanging over him now. Arizona is just going to wait and see what happens, and pray that Book Richardson isn’t the one to decide to roll over for a plea.

Hell, Miami. MIAMI!? Is implicated, and Jim Larranga could be in trouble. That blows my mind on so many levels. Larranga would never be one you would expect ensarled in this. And as much as we all love talking how dirty Miami football is/was. The basketball was irrelevant. Even as they have gotten better.

Auburn. Oh, Auburn. It seemed like a good plan to hire Bruce Pearl. What got him fired at Tennessee is no longer even an NCAA violation. He brought energy, bravado. The turnaround was happening a little slower then hoped, but he was also bringing in recruits. Now, we are suspecting why.

Heck, Auburn AD Jay Jacobs could be out after this as well. He took a big hit on an earlier mess with Title IX issues with the softball team. His football hirings haven’t been able to stay with Alabama. This could be what gives the boosters of Auburn their final push. [Would anyone be surprised if Auburn hired Tom Jurich, and then got Petrino shortly there after? It almost seems too perfect.]

At the beginning of the week, Auburn had announced it sold out its season tickets for the season. Now it is offering refunds.

Short-term amusement levels are high right now.