Former Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino has reached a settlement with the school.
Pitino was fired after allegations surfaced of alleged illegal benefits being given to a recruit, and the legendary coach quickly responded by suing the school. (RELATED: Louisville Fires Basketball Coach Rick Pitino)
Now, a settlement was reached on Wednesday that will put an end to the saga. Unfortunately for Pitino, he’s not getting a cash windfall of any kind.
The school won’t be paying him, but the settlement “includes language” that Pitino resigned instead of getting fired, according to Jeff Greer.
Louisville AD Vince Tyra says the school will not have to pay any money to Pitino as part of the settlement.
Part of the settlement includes language in Pitino’s personnel file that he resigned effective Oct. 3, 2017.
— Jeff Greer (@jeffgreer) September 18, 2019
To tell you how far Pitino fell short on the lawsuit with this one, he was initially suing for $40 million. $40 million!
It’s pretty rough to go from hoping to get a ton of money to getting not a single penny. Who gives a damn about whether or not you were technically fired or resigned.
The whole thing unfolded in front of the entire country. I don’t think the perception has changed one bit just because Louisville changed his file.
The most interesting thing to see will be whether or not he ever coaches at the college level again. He went overseas, but you’d have to think a smaller program would welcome Pitino’s presence.
He doesn’t get paid to be a role model. He gets paid to win basketball games.
It’d be an unreal story if he took a small struggling school and turned them into a powerhouse, scheduled Louisville, and lit them up.
That’d be a “30 for 30” that wrote itself. We’ll see what happens, but we all know nothing is ever truly off of the table in the world of college sports.