Why Rick Pitino Will Survive the Stripper Scandal at Louisville

The fact that Rick Pitino still has a job after what has taken place in the last three weeks is a pretty good indication that Pitino will still be employed tomorrow, a year from now and however long he damn well pleases at the University of Louisville.

Pitino wrote to fans on Thursday that he's not resigning, a move that would have been understandable after the latest development in the scandal that has shaken the Louisville program—five former players and recruits telling ESPN's Outside the Lines that parties with strippers paid for by former Louisville graduate assistant Andre McGee took place at a campus dorm. 

Joe Raymond/Associated Press

Now that the details in Katina Powell's get-rich-quick book, Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen, have been given some credence, the public relations move for Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich is to clean house. That's how to avoid a media backlash.

But it wouldn't be the best business decision to remove Pitino. No one will be able to get the Louisville program past this and back to where it has been faster than the Hall of Fame coach. This is not just about loyalty; this is about business. 

See, it looks to be pretty much a given that Louisville is going to get hit hard by the NCAA. McGee reportedly turned Billy Minardi Hall into a brothel, allegedly paying for recruits and players to have sex with strippers in addition to the peep shows. That, no matter how you present it to the NCAA, would qualify as an "extra benefit." 

The NCAA is going to do what it does: Loss of scholarships, postseason bans and suspensions are looming. The way the NCAA handled SMU and coach Larry Brown, who also claimed he knew nothing, suggests that Pitino will not be able to dodge the NCAA's wrath with deniability. He will likely get hit with a lack of coach control. 

The cure for the Cardinals will be winning. Time and winning cure all when it comes to scandal in college athletics, and that's why Louisville is sticking with Pitino. 

He's proved he can handle a scandal before. 

It was spring 2009 when the public learned of Pitino's affair with a woman who later tried to extort him after he paid for her abortion. Don't you think opposing coaches used that against him in recruiting? 

In the years that followed, Pitino landed the recruits that helped him win a national title in 2013. He didn't just beat that scandal. He thrived after it.

David J. Phillip/Associated Press

This is another kind of beast, and the NCAA's involvement may well be crippling. Some families are not even going to consider Louisville because of the filth that reportedly took place. But Pitino has an aura about him and enough goodwill built over time that he'll still be able to land players. And no coach who Louisville can go out and get is going to do a better coaching job than Pitino. 

Even if Louisville were to turn elsewhere, what up-and-coming coach is going to want to take over a program with NCAA trouble on the horizon? 

Pitino has his reputation and legacy to repair, and no one is going to be more motivated to bring Louisville back from this than Pitino. 

That's why he can (and likely will) survive this.

Now if it is somehow proved down the road that Pitino knew anything about what was happening, he will be fired. As he should be. 

That's the one battle he has left, and more information on what has been reported to have happened appears destined to come out. If confirmed, it would seem unlikely that McGee was operating by himself. The money came from somewhere—graduate assistants make peanuts—and McGee had to be just a middle man. Whether it was someone higher up in the program or possibly a rich booster (think Miami's Nevin Shapiro) supplying the extra incentives to land players, this wasn't a one-man show.

But if Pitino can dodge the dirt and money trail, he'll go out on his terms. And Louisville will allow it. Just like SMU. Just like Syracuse and Jim Boeheim.

That's the business of college athletics.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.