We suppose Equifax CEO Richard F. Smith could have argued someone in the company’s IT department – and not him – should face the consequences of negligence that allowed a ruinous data breach at the credit-reporting company.

But life doesn’t work that way when one is captain of the ship. Smith “retired” last week, with the company’s board saying it reserves the right to reclassify his departure as a firing depending on what its ongoing probe of the calamity unveils.

We have editorialized previously that the same fate should have befallen University of Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino in the wake of a prostitution scandal involving the men’s basketball team. Last October, a glacial NCAA probe finally confirmed claims that Pitino assistant coach Andre McGee paid a local “madam” to provide women to strip and have sex with recruits and players. The encounters allegedly occurred at more than 20 “shows,” many of them on campus in the men’s basketball dorm during a four-year span that includes UofL’s 2012-2013 national championship season.

Pitino insisted he should not be blamed. He said he had no inkling of what his assistant, players and recruits had been up to. The NCAA did not accept that excuse. The four “Level I” charges it has placed against the program include one against Pitino himself for failing to appropriately supervise McGee.

Soliciting prostitution is a crime, of course. And human trafficking is in theory repugnant in academia. UofL itself has since 2011 hosted an annual Human Trafficking Awareness Conference at its Women’s Center.

But hypocritically, the already scandal-plagued university just could not bring itself to part with Pitino and his winning ways.

Today, one can only imagine what this will cost UofL.

Pitino’s program is now in the crosshairs of a stunning FBI bribery probe. Four assistant coaches at other universities are among 10 people arrested Tuesday as the investigation was unveiled. The men are charged with conspiring to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to top high school recruits and their families to influence their choices of colleges, agents and apparel sponsors.

Although not mentioned by name, UofL is unmistakably identified by other descriptions in the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney in New York in conjunction with Tuesday’s arrests. The complaint alleges that a top recruit was persuaded to enroll at UofL in return for a promise to pay his family $100,000.

The Courier-Journal has, based on other information in the complaint, identified the recruit as UofL freshman Brian Bowen, a highly sought-after McDonald’s All-American. In fact, the complaint directly quotes a Courier-Journal article saying Bowen’s choice of UofL was a “surprise” that “came out of nowhere.”

The obvious question now in what is a continuing probe is: Why UofL? Steering Bowen to UofL, if indeed it happened, wasn’t just some magnanimous act by a bunch of crooks. Someone at UofL wanted Bowen, who happened to round out a stellar recruiting class that has Louisville ranked preseason No. 10 by ESPN. Who was it?

This is not some misdemeanor prostitution probe this time. This is the real deal. In addition to bribery the charges include money laundering and wire fraud. It is not going to end well for someone or someones in or very close to Pitino’s program. One even wonders given the trouble UofL already is in if an SMU-style NCAA “death penalty” awaits the basketball program.

If UofL had shown the backbone to deal with Pitino and his entourage when first it should have, would the university be facing this monumental scandal today? One thing is certain. We are going to find out.