In addition to Pitino’s suspension and the potential loss of dozens of wins, the N.C.A.A. announced an assortment of other penalties, including placing the basketball program on probation for four years and restricting scholarships and recruiting. Vacated victories also could ensnare the Cardinals’ trip to the Final Four in 2012, the year before they defeated Michigan to win the program’s third N.C.A.A. tournament championship.

The university was also fined $5,000 and ordered to return any conference revenue-sharing money it received for appearances in the N.C.A.A. tournament from 2012 to 2015. McGee was handed a 10-year show-cause order, effectively barring him from coaching at any N.C.A.A. university. A former assistant coach was given a one-year show-cause order.

The scandal was revealed nearly two years ago, in a book by a woman who said she was the escort service employee whom McGee — a former player for Pitino then serving on the basketball staff — had solicited to provide women to entertain recruits and their player hosts. According to an N.C.A.A. notice of allegations released by Louisville last year, the incidents took place in an on-campus dormitory named for Pitino’s late brother-in-law.

Louisville announced a group of self-imposed punishments in February 2016, including a postseason ban for the 2015-16 season (when the Cardinals ended the season ranked No. 14). Such punishments are a common tactic for universities that find themselves in the N.C.A.A.’s cross hairs, designed both to get sanctions out of the way and to indicate cooperation and remorse.

Upon releasing the N.C.A.A.’s notice of allegations against Pitino and his staff in October, Louisville’s acting president at the time, Neville Pinto, and the university’s athletic director, Tom Jurich, noted that there was no accusation that Pitino was aware of McGee’s activities. Louisville also said it would challenge the N.C.A.A.’s charge that Pitino had failed to adequately monitor McGee. Pitino disputed the allegation against him at a news conference, saying, “I over-monitor my staff.”

N.C.A.A. rules tend to focus on addressing the monetary value of benefits that programs might use to help in recruiting, while being generally agnostic as to the substance of those benefits. But the sordid details of the Louisville scandal apparently made an impression on the N.C.A.A.’s infractions committee, which handed down Thursday’s sanctions.

Saying that college athletes “deserve an appropriate environment,” Carol Cartwright, the chief hearing officer, said on a conference call, “We were not persuaded by the argument that the monetary amounts were small.”

Certainly the specifics of this case raised its profile. So did Pitino’s prominence. Now in his 17th season at Louisville, Pitino has led three colleges — Providence, Kentucky and Louisville — to college basketball’s Final Four, winning national championships at the latter two. (He also has coached in the N.B.A., for the Knicks and the Boston Celtics.) His 770 Division I men’s basketball wins — pending any future forfeits — put him 12th on the career list, and he was poised to enter the top 10 next season. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.