A top athletics official at the University of Louisville paid strippers and prostitutes to provide sexual services to prime recruits for the men’s basketball team in hopes of persuading them to enroll, according to a forthcoming book described on Friday in the Indianapolis Business Journal.
The book, Breaking Cardinal Rules: Basketball and the Escort Queen, is by Katina Powell, a stripper and escort in Louisville who describes her experiences, citing hundreds of journal entries and thousands of text messages, with the help of a ghostwriter. The book is being released by IBJ Book Publishing, a sister company of the Indianapolis Business Journal.
“I felt like I was part of the recruitment team. A lot of them players went to Louisville because of me,” Ms. Powell says in the book.
The book’s allegations have prompted an internal investigation at the university. During the years described in the book, 2010 to 2014, the men’s basketball team played in two Final Fours and won a national title.
At 22 parties Ms. Powell alleges that she and other women, including her own daughters, performed sex acts for top recruits, their fathers, and current members of the team. In all, she says, she earned more than $10,000 for supplying women for the parties. The recruits were also plied with alcohol, even though they were underage drinkers, the book says.
“The university was shocked to hear of the allegations,” according to a statement it provided to the Journal. “The University of Louisville will continue its review in full cooperation and coordination with the NCAA and, if warranted, take any appropriate action. The allegations have been taken very seriously. In no way would anyone at this institution condone the alleged activities.”
