NCAA Appeal Decision Press Conference

Interim President Dr. Greg Postel

Opening Statement

"John, thank you very much. Good afternoon, thank you all for joining us today. As John said, I will deliver some brief remarks, as will our Interim Athletics Director Vince Tyra, and then we will be sure to provide time to answer some of your questions following this.

Today the NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee announced that it had upheld earlier imposed penalties on the University of Louisville, inclusive of financial penalties and the vacation of victories between 2011 to 2015, the 2013 National Championship and the 2012 Final Four appearance. I cannot say this strongly enough, we believe the NCAA is simply wrong to have made this decision.

Like many of you, I believe that it was important for the university to have appealed portions of the original decision and to do so, we prepared thoroughly, we engaged an attorney with expertise in the appellate process. A man who is a professor at Georgetown Law School and who has since been named the litigator of the year by the American Lawyer. We felt that the young men who achieved these victories and the thousands of fans who supported them deserved our best effort.

The University appeal, however, was challenging from the beginning. The facts of this case are simply terrible, causing many to find the detail of the appeal not compelling. It is also important to note that precedent for such a case does not exist, and that the NCAA infractions committee has wide discretion as it determines penalties. The pain this decision has created for our fans and our players who were not involved in the events in question is perhaps the most regretful result of this determination.

The University, under prior leadership, never made excuses for what took place. There was an immediate recognition of the facts, the issuance of an apology, serious self-imposed penalties, extraordinary cooperation with the investigation that followed, and the strengthening of and creation of policies and procedures to make sure that this never happened again. Under the NCAA's own rules, such cooperation should have been a factor in determining the severity of the punishment. Instead, it was ignored. It is my belief, however, that we did the right thing because it was the right thing, not that we expected to receive something in return.

A dark cloud has hung over our heads for more than two years. The events that took place in the past have painted an unfair portrait of the University of Louisville. We are a community of educators, scholars, clinicians, researchers, community servants, and athletes. And these events simply do not define us. What does define us is our commitment to our missions and our resilience. We are ready to move ahead and display an even stronger commitment to excellence both on and off the court. The NCAA's ruling cannot change the accomplishments of, or the excitement generated by, our men's basketball team. It cannot change the love we have for this great university. I hope you will join me in remembering those players and their accomplishments. It is also my hope that you will join me as the University looks ahead to brighter days in athletics and as an academic institution.

Again, my thanks for joining us today, and at this point I will call upon Vince Tyra for additional comments."

Interim Athletics Director Vince Tyra

Opening Statement

"Thank you, Dr. Postel. Just to make a few follow up comments to what was just mentioned, I think that during this whole process, my emotions go from mad to sad. It's a variety of things, including disappointment, that you go through based upon the way the process went, and certainly the outcome. The process itself was unusual to me from a business standpoint. Typically, what you see when you're dealing with an organization like an OHSHA or somewhere where there's healthcare guidelines, it's more black and white. With the NCAA, their bylaws, which seem to be guidelines, and then there's great discretion on the guidelines, and it's very difficult to follow and set precedent and follow that from today or any day going forward. That was certainly an unusual experience for me, and I hope to not be a part of anything like it again.

I think the one thing is that we bring closure to some of these situations, it's not going to bring closure to the memories and the success that our teams had. We're talking about a span of a period we did have great success, 2012, 2013, and this is where your emotions move to the sad. I'm sad for our players, I'm certainly sad for our staff and those that helped create the success, and our fans in particular who have been passionate about this team, these teams I should say. But also, since then and this has been challenged, the fans have certainly made their voice well heard throughout, and I know they're going to be highly disappointed with what we're talking about today. It's awful to have to go through. With that, I think that it gets to the players themselves. I was fortunate that I grew up with a father who played here and accomplished a great deal individually, and the teams accomplished a great deal. Unfortunately, the players who did play during this time aren't going to have the same ability with their kids that my father had in going through and looking at the records and understanding what they did individually and what their teams accomplished, so I feel for them. I wish there was something we could do in that regard, and we'll certainly think about it.

I attended those Final Fours in New Orleans and Atlanta and have great memories. As we won in Atlanta, my mother came home wearing her celebratory hat on the plane, and that's a memory I won't forget and why it was created. Having pictures with Bill Walton and all those things she got to do was great. As it relates to the players and so forth, the excitement they had and what we got to celebrate as a city, those memories won't be forgotten. So, from here we'll certainly remove the formal recognition of our accomplishments from our facilities, but they won't remove it from our hearts and our minds. Our men's basketball program, our athletics program in total will continue to push forward with the support of our fans and replace the 2012 and 2013 banners with banners to come across many sports. What's happened here today, and what's occurred, will not hold us back. I think the transactions of a few and the NCAA certainly won't hold us back."

Questions and Answer Portion

(On the final decision by the NCAA)
POSTEL: The NCAA process is clear that there is no further appeal in the NCAA system once the apelet body has weighed in, as they did today. Within the NCAA there is no further opportunity for appeal.

(On legal action of UofL)
POSTEL: Theoretically that is a possibility. There has been no formal conversation at the University around that possibility.

(On the amount of money that is owed by UofL)
POSTEL: Yes, certainly. The penalty is somewhere in the vicinity of $600,000. I know much larger numbers have been quoted. That is simply not true. It's well under a million dollars. For me, I'm of course watching the universities' finances. I don't like to write out checks. Make sure that is a quote. That being said, that's not the real loss here today. Our loss is for our fans, for the players who are suffering as the result of the vacation of titles. We will find money. Money is replaceable, the other things aren't and as Vince nicely pointed out the memories are there, but some of the formal recognition will not be.

(On the denied appeal)
POSTEL: I don't see that it does in any way. This is a seperate matter relating to a previous investigation and the appeal to a previously determined penalty.

(On the UofL brand)
POSTEL: Well my message about our brand is that UofL has an outstanding brand. One person doesn't define our brand and we have thousands of students, faculty and staff doing great things every day. They are going to do wonderful things in the future. We are going to move past this. We have done absolutely everything humanly possible to defend portions of the penalties that have been levied and now it is time for us to move ahead and that's what will determine our brand for days to come.

(On what is next moving forward with the removal of accomplishments)
POSTEL: Well, there are some technical aspects to the actual removal of the formal recognition that has the NCAA name associated with it and trophies and those sorts of things. At this point, to be honest with you, we are compiling a list so we make sure we understand what those issues are so that we are in compliance with the NCAA and that will become apparent in the next few days.

(On when these changes will occur)
POSTEL: I think as soon as feasible, I don't think there is a date.

(On when UofL was told about the announcement)
POSTEL: Yes, the typical NCAA process is the day before the public announcement they provide an announcement to our attorneys and institutional officials so we have an opportunity to prepare and make sure we have an understanding of the events such as this.

(On the argument to not comply with the NCAA)
POSTEL: Well, I suppose that argument could be made, but as I said in my remarks, I like to think we do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. I personally cannot imagine not being cooperative in an investigation. Not saying I'm sorry, not taking responsibility for it, not trying to make stronger mechanisms to prevent recurrence. So regardless that they give you the credit, they are simply the right thing to do. I think there is a different problem associated to not doing those things.

(On the amount of money that is owed)
POSTEL: It does not, but those are trailing amounts. It's our belief that this number is a pretty good estimate and captures by far the bulk of what we would own in return.

(On the decision's impact on this year's men's basketball team)
POSTEL: "Well, I'll answer and I'd like to hear Vince's response as well. What I'd like to say is that we're fortunate to have a wonderful interim men's basketball coach. David (Padgett) is doing a terrific job under very difficult circumstances this year. I don't see quite honestly how this could add to the difficulties he has already had to encounter, and despite that, he's done a fantastic job. He's kept the team together and he's coached them to victories. So, I don't see how this changes the season going forward."

(On appeals made by former Louisville staff members)
POSTEL: "Coach Pitino did not continue with his appeal. It was announced some time ago that he had personally decided to withdraw that, so that stood as is. I do not know about the status of Brandon Williams' appeal."

(On "doing the right thing" considering North Carolina case)
POSTEL: "It's so hard to compare situations like that. This is one of the difficulties in the NCAA. If you look at legal cases that take place in civil court, which we have so much more experience with, there's a large body of evidence to show what happens in specific circumstances. It's like Vince's analogy with OSHA. With the NCAA, the cases are so different from one another, and the circumstances are so unique, it's really hard to draw comparisons. The things that happened there, as we understand them—of course, that's only from a distance, we don't work at North Carolina—but the facts that we understand are completely different from the facts in this case. So, I'm not sure that drawing a comparison amounts to much."

(On future relationship with NCAA)
POSTEL: "I would not use that terminology. I think that we have to understand that we are part of the NCAA. We have to follow its rules, like them or not. And, we've done that. We will continue to play in NCAA competition going forward, not just in men's basketball, but in so many sports. So, I don't think, at this point, it's helpful to characterize things in that way. We're sad. Like Vince said, we're mad about the actions of people who went before us, but we have to move on."

(On recent developments at Louisville having impact on NCAA appeal)
POSTEL: "We can't really comment on pending litigation, but these matters, according to the NCAA, are considered in isolation from one another. So, our understanding is that they looked at the facts involving this case and adjudicated on those. I don't think there is bleed over from other matters. We've been led to believe there should not be."

(On bringing closure with the decision)
TYRA: "I think we had an idea where the financial piece was going to come, so I had some thoughts around that. In terms of bringing closure to it, I think for the fan base, it's just good to bring closure to it. I'm sure there will be some open issues, as the question was about 'Should we go further with any other action?' But, if you asked our 600-plus student-athletes, they're ready to move on."

(On the future of the banner)
TYRA: "We haven't decided where it's going to go yet."

(On the potential of legal action)
TYRA: "Honestly, I think it would be a difficult case. As Dr. Postel mentioned, we haven't formally discussed that. I would personally probably not be in favor of it at this point. I think the value of trying to beat the NCAA on guidelines is difficult. I think there's not a lot of precedent for that happening. So, I think emotions need to be filtered a bit, and be a little bit more objective about what precedent there may be. In this case, certainly this is new precedent that we're seeing here, but I think it would be difficult for me to think about dipping into the piggy bank to try to continue this on while we have other issues to deal with here."

(Question indecipherable)
TYRA: "Yeah, I would like to believe that we weren't thinking about that and frankly, and had a hope of where we would be at this point. But, in your own mind, you do think about different things. We don't want to put salt in the wound. We're trying to think about what's appropriate on how you can recognize those players and those wins and what you can or can't do. We'll certainly recognize the losses, unfortunately, and not the wins, but we'll be thoughtful about what we can do and keep within respect for the NCAA."

(On the current team's reaction)
TYRA: "Have I talked to them? No, you guys are finding out first and foremost, so it's a little bit awkward in just the way the process works out that you can't go talk to them. So, I will do that today. I'll be over with the team after practice today and sit with them. To be honest, we've had that conversation leading into the season and addressed it upfront, knowing that this could go one way or another. There certainly may be some blip of the bummer of it, and be disappointed, but these kids really think about what's in front of them. They've been really focused on this year's season, as has the staff. Look, they're going to be disappointed they have to answer more questions to it, but I'm not sure that it changes how hard they're going to play tomorrow night."

(On speaking with players from the 2013 team)
TYRA: "Not at this time, you can imagine their emotions though. I can sense what their reaction is today. I think it's in line with my own if not higher."

(On the feeling after the appeal in December)
TYRA: "No, I think we were optimistic. I think we felt like we had a terrific litigator in Neal (Katyal) and our case was pretty matter-of-fact. I felt like we got in there and fought back. There isn't precedent for this. The guidelines were there. We were not properly informed, in our mind, of what the actions versus the penalties were. It was gray area. It wasn't black and white. We felt like we spelled that out for them using precedent, which you would do in an appeal case, and felt good about our case in terms of what we presented and how we believe things would have played out had we known."

(Question indecipherable)
POSTEL: "I think the answer to that is, yes. This is a sensational case. People don't send their children to a university to encounter these kinds of things. So, when you hear a story like this, it's appalling. It's especially appalling to those of us who work here and spend our whole lives trying to elevate the image of the institution. I mean, we're focusing here, appropriately, a lot today on the negative impact that this has on the players, and that can't be overestimated. But this is an impact on the entire university. This is our home. This is a place we work. Some of us have been here more than 20 years. We care about this place. This is not the kind of activity that we wish to be associated with, and I think that answers your question."

(On any further appeals or action)
POSTEL: "There really isn't. We hired one of the finest attorneys in the United States, by all accounts. We researched the matter thoroughly. We found everything we could in the NCAA, in terms of matters similar to this. As I've said before, there is no exact precedent. No one has had a case like this, but there are cases that have had similar components. And so we drew upon those to look at how the NCAA arrived at penalties and we found significant inconsistencies in the way this case was adjudicated. And so, as Vince pointed out, we had an opportunity to lay that out very thoroughly and thoughtfully for the NCAA appeals committee back in December of this year and, quite honestly, we felt good about it. I do not know what else we could have done. The person we hired was a litigator, so questions have been asked previously, 'is this the kind of thing that you might consider taking to the next step?' You would hire the same kind of guy. I mean, if you were going to do this, you would hire a top, national litigator. In this case, from a very respected Washington D.C. law firm to come in and present the case in the most favorable light possible – we did that. And at the end of the day, the discretionary ability of the NCAA was broad enough so as to allow them to uphold their judgment. And I think, in all honesty, that's what makes it so difficult to think through the possibility of a further appeal, because we would, once again, be going up against that same set of arguments."

(Do you think the NCAA made an example of Louisville)
POSTEL: "Well I don't think they made an example of us specifically. I think they are saying they have to make an example of any kind of wrong behavior in their judgement. We have seen other examples very recently where the NCAA has ruled in an unfavorable way against schools for various types of behavior and I think the message is loud and clear to anyone who hasn't heard it. You have to run a clean program. If you do, you won't be spending your time in these types of press conferences. If there is a problem, you are going to be called into question."

(Question indecipherable)
POSTEL: "Yes I do. Similar to Tim's question I think the overriding nature of this matter is so appalling to most people that they do listen beyond that. They have heard all they need to hear and the details become insignificant."

(Question indecipherable)
TYRA: "Yeah there has been no clarity from them. We met with the NCAA a while back and I specifically talked about where we were and things we were doing in the program and made it clear to them of actions we were taking here. When it comes to Brian (Bowen), I don't feel they are going to give you any proper direction on that anyway. We did what we thought was best and made a decision."

(Question indecipherable)
TYRA: "All individual records and team accomplishments will be removed."

(Question indecipherable)
TYRA: "Very involved. He's been a with the University and with these matters specifically to be clear, Neal (Katyal) was the lead on the case in terms of putting together our thoughts and direction on how to appeal the case. This is what he does in front of the Supreme Court for a living and he did in front of the NCAA for us."

(Question indecipherable)
TYRA: "No there has been no additional feedback on that."

(On when the probation runs out)
TYRA: "Most of those dates run out in 2021 by the association."

(Question indecipherable)
TYRA: "Of this association? Four I believe."

(On did he agree with the punishment)
TYRA: "The punishment to the individuals or the punishment to us? No I don't feel the punishment given to us is appropriate. I think I have been clear that I am disappointed in the process. And I think the gray matter in this case went against us. The final paragraph that you will see in the release from the NCAA, notwithstanding notes that kind of a hand slap on the committee of infractions from the appeals committee on how they were gray and not directly correlating the actions to the penalties. It was unclear to us and it made it difficult on the case. We tried to clear it up for them and it went on deaf ears."

(On was the previous punishment were the right thing to do)
POSTEL: "I think it was, to be quite honest that is probably a penalty we would have likely been given at that time or now. What the University tried to do was make it very clear that what had happened was wrong and make a very bold statement about that. The NCAA obviously didn't think it was bold enough. I think we can't be any more sincere in our effort to try, after the fact, to do the right thing then by taking a step such as that - which, at the time, it was quite extraordinary. Obviously the penalties today have gone beyond that. I think in retrospect, it still was the right thing to do, yes."
TYRA: "Just one follow up on that. I think again back to that point I just made, if you go back to that section in the release – it's not clear on the mitigating factors that the University accomplished and how that might reduce the penalty. I think that's another smack on the hand to the committee on infractions."

University of Louisville Athletics

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