Tigers To Appeal NCAA Ruling

The University of Memphis basketball record of last season -- 38 wins and a close loss to Kansas for the national championship -- has been invalidated by the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
The university has said it will appeal, but in my experience in covering NCAA infractions is that appeals rarely work. In fact, the NCAA can add on penalties if a university chooses to appeal and that's because the NCAA is judge, jury and executioner. In today's press release, the Tiger basketball program was found guilty of major violations. The most serious violation centered around former Tiger point guard Derrick Rose had some one take his SAT for him. Rose vehemently denied the charge. The university's president, university counsel and athletic director appeared in a press conference shortly after the NCAA announced the penalties and each looked stunned at the ruling. Rose, from Chicago, is now with the Chicago Bulls in the NBA. He was never going to play more than one season with the Tigers, opting as many outstanding players now do, to go "one-and-done." He was one of the most coveted players in the country before settling on the Tigers, a recruiting coup for former Tiger coach John Calipari. Calipari, now the head coach at the University of Kentucky, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the NCAA investigation. Calipari now has been at two universities where the NCAA has been the head coach where an entire season has been taken away. His UMass team in 1996 when it was found that the team's star, Marcus Camby, had taken money from an agent.