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Of the many incisive lines delivered by actor Tim Matheson in the seminal motion picture on campus life, National Lampoon's Animal House, the one that best fits this particular moment in college basketball history can only be half-quoted by those of us who care to keep our jobs.
There's a moment in the film when Matheson's character, Otter, admonishes one of the young pledges that he committed an egregious error in judgment by accepting the notion that his older fraternity brothers had his best interests in mind:
"You trusted us."
That is where the University of Memphis stands today, having released its formal response to the allegations the NCAA brought against the athletic department, which mostly involved women's golf but generated a media frenzy because of a couple of inflated charges against the Tigers basketball program.
Before putting him in the starting lineup, Memphis went through the initial eligibility process in great detail with the player in question -- now known to be Derrick Rose -- including special attention to the validity of his standardized test scores. Ultimately, as the report states, "He was certified by the NCAA eligibility center as a qualifier." That's kind of an important distinction that's being largely ignored.
A little less than two years later, the NCAA's infractions committee was taking a decidedly different position: You gonna believe those guys?
The Tigers also were charged with providing free transit and lodging to a family member of a player, known to be Derrick Rose's brother, Reggie. As anyone could logically have discerned, those alleged "extra benefits" were, as explained in the Memphis report, nothing more than an administrative error.
Reggie Rose made seven trips on the charter airplane to watch his brother play and only was charged for five. "Frankly, the same error could have been made for any member of the public traveling with the men's basketball team," the report said.
Memphis' response to the academic fraud charges explains it vigorously investigated rumors a particular Tigers basketball player had benefited from a fraudulent grade change and had used a proxy to take his ACT.
"Based on the interviews and the review of the documents, the University concluded that neither (the player) nor the coaching staff had any knowledge of the grade change," the Memphis report said. It goes on to explain the improvement facilitated by the grade change was not required for the player to be admitted or academically eligible by NCAA standards--and the university forwarded an updated academic transcript to the NCAA eligibility center in November of his freshman year.
The university was not notified the Educational Testing Service had invalidated Rose's qualifying SAT until May 2008, a month after the Tigers' Final Four season ended and after the university concluded its academic year. Memphis looked into this and stated it found "insufficient evidence" to conclude Rose did not post his own SAT score.
It's not clear whether that test was nullified because it was deemed clearly fraudulent or because Rose did not engage in defending himself. ETS requests for Rose to explain the circumstances of his qualifying test were delivered to his home address in Chicago -- not to his campus residence in Memphis.
"Certainly the University of Memphis should not suffer a financial penalty or vacation of records for the 2008 NCAA Tournament as a result of this allegation," the Memphis report declared. "The University believes that fundamental fairness to the institution, its other student-athletes and coaches, and its community makes this a case in which the committee ... should exercise its discretion to take no punitive action."
Can Memphis trust the infractions committee to be so reasonable? Or should the Tigers "assume the position" and expect to be smacked hard?
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
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