Mike DeCourcy

The letter that arrived back in January to University of Memphis president Shirley Raines' office stated up front she had some serious issues in her athletic department. The words "major violations" are right there, like a Category 5 hurricane warning to a person living in a beachfront home.

And then, for six and a half pages, the "notice of allegations" goes on about women's golf.

A show of hands: How many knew Memphis even had a women's golf team? Who figured there could be anything major about it?

There are some substantial charges against the women's golf program, which is how new Kentucky coach John Calipari came to find himself in the headlines. His name appears nowhere in the report, but two allegations regarding the Tigers basketball program he once coached have been extrapolated to "major" because they were stuffed under the same umbrella as the golf case.

Under ordinary circumstances, the issues involving the basketball team would be disposed of fairly simply. The accusation that a player, reportedly star point guard Derrick Rose, did not take his own SAT is a huge deal. There's not much worse than academic fraud. But this customarily would not constitute a major violation against the program because no Memphis staff member is alleged to have facilitated it or known about it.

A charge that a family member of a player received free travel, reportedly Rose's brother Reggie, would be disposed of with a check to reimburse the university for its expense.

It's not so neat and quiet now. The charges are a big deal in Memphis, Kentucky and in places where people have some interest in Kentucky basketball, which is more or less everywhere. The semantics and technicalities of why the basketball charges are considered to be major won't really matter.

No one will want to hear Memphis is not in the habit of letting people fly free on its team charters. Some of its most generous boosters -- people who have given upward of a half-million dollars to the athletic department -- have hopped on board when convenient. They always were charged at the end. The person who allegedly received free trips paid for some, also. The gentleman who handles the team's travel is one of the most thorough, meticulous people you will encounter. If Memphis wasn't fully reimbursed, it's not because the traveler did not receive a bill.

The university apparently feels good about its response to the charges. There has been speculation that if a player cheated on his SAT and rendered himself ineligible that the Tigers' NCAA-record 38 victories and 2008 Final Four appearance could be vacated. However, if it's not proven Memphis had reason to know the player was ineligible -- indeed, the NCAA clearinghouse had certified the eligibility of that season's freshmen -- it would be hard to justify that action. The coaches were told the kid could play, so they played him.

This is not to say that in trying to make this all go away the University of Memphis might not offer the surrender of the Final Four as a solution.

That would hurt the players who competed and the fans who followed the team, but they know what they accomplished. It's Calipari who has the most to lose if 2008 were to be stricken from the record because the accomplishments of his 1996 Massachusetts team already have an asterisk attached.

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That came as the result of star center Marcus Camby's admission he received payment from a prospective agent. If Calipari were to have two Final Fours wiped away, his reputation would absorb the most punishing blow to date.

The only good news for Calipari in all this is the NCAA pretty much turned over the tables in the Tigers basketball program once it entered the door to check on women's golf. If this is all there was to find, the basketball program was being run reasonably well.

It won't play like that publicly, though. Memphis has some serious allegations to defend in women's golf, but no one really noticed those issues existed. The NCAA justice system is a complicated apparatus that sometimes defies easy explanation. It's not so tough to figure out who is a star and who is not.

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