Louisville, Kentucky - The dark cloud that has hovered over the Louisville men's basketball program has finally been lifted.

On Thursday, the NCAA's Independent Accountability Resolution Process (IARP) released their ruling in the huge 2017-18 corruption scandal involving former Cardinals star recruit Brian Bowen Jr., whose father allegedly accepted a $100,000 bribe from Adidas.

Louisville and its former coaches were able to avoid major penalties, including the possible postseason ban fans were fearing most.

The Cardinals will serve a two-year probation in addition to paying a $5,000 fine. The program was also given a two-week ban on unofficial visits and a public reprimand.

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While former head coaches Rick Pitino and Chris Mack were exonerated, former assistants Kenny Johnson and Jordan Fair have been assessed a two-year show-cause penalty.

The independent panel concluded that the NCAA failed to show evidence that Adidas, cited as an orchestrator of a scheme to lure recruits to its partner schools, was a representative of the university.

"With the IARP decision announced today, the five-year process involving the University of Louisville’s men’s basketball program has now come to an end," The university said in a statement. "We are grateful to the members of the panel, led by Chairman Benck, who were fair and deliberate and who ultimately supported many of our robust arguments."

The panel's ruling cannot be appealed.

After spending five years in the dark shadows of college basketball, the future of Louisville's is finally a lot clearer.

Still, the Cardinals will have to work to clean up their tarnished reputation.

"There has been a cloud over this program for over five years now," athletic director Josh Heird told the media. "Whether it was over recruiting or just the fans feeling the impact of it, the athletic staff, the university staff and for all of that to be lifted today… Obviously, we have some things we are going to have to do from a penalty standpoint. We will make sure that we do that. It is relief. It feels good."

At the peak of the scandal, Hall of Fame coach Pitino and longtime athletic director Tom Jurich, who both helped turn Louisville into one of the top hoop programs in the nation, were fired.

Additionally, both of their successors – Chris Mack and Vince Tyra, respectively – also quit the university during this time, leaving the basketball program to fall into shambles.

"As positive of a day as this is, we can’t forget the last five years and what it has done to this program. The millions of dollars that this program has spent, the millions of dollars this program has lost, the opportunity for the student-athletes to compete at the highest level, which is the expectation when they come to the University of Louisville," Heird said.

He added: "It has been a big impact. I don’t think anyone can undersell how much of an impact it has been. It is not going to go away today. We are going to have to build this program back up. Today is a step in the right direction to do that."