Memphis Boosters Chapped At Ruling... Is NCAA Playing Faves...???

((HT: MyFoxMemphis))

Tealy Deveraux tracked down one of the high-falootin' boosters for the Tigers and got his take on the ruling handed down from the NCAA.

See if you can guess what OSG researchers went after post-posting...???


Okay... for those of you who guessed the reference to Corey Maggette, give yourself a gold star.

Retreating to a Dan Wetzel piece from Yahoo!Sports in 2004, we revisit Wetzel's question...

Two days after the piece was published, the NCAA came out and said there would be no sanctions against Duke in the case. This is after Maggette admitted taking $2,000 from Myron Piggie. He, initially, said that he had not...

The NCAA's decision claimed that Duke was "unaware Maggette should have been ineligible." They were not aware of any payments between Maggette and Piggie.

Quoting David Price, NCAA Vice President of Enforcement, in April of 2004:

"After a lengthy investigation, we came to the conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to determine Maggette knew or should have known, and we believe firmly that the institution did not know and should not have known."

If we take the last half of the paragraph and apply it to Memphis' situation, there may be investigative precedent for the university- and this is regardless of what happened in the Duke case, truth or otherwise... that Maggette "knew or should have known" what he did was wrong.

From Dan Wolken's work in the Memphis Commercial Appeal...

Memphis claims Rose’s academic transcript was certified by the NCAA clearinghouse and came into question only after the 2007-08 season had been completed.

Memphis also claims it took all reasonable steps to ensure Rose’s eligibility after questions about his high school transcript arose in October 2007. Athletic director R.C. Johnson said Rose was questioned by four school officials about the SAT and that the school was comfortable with its investigation, which found no evidence that he cheated.

Taking that at its face value, this would fall equal to the Duke assertions in the Maggette investigation. Duke didn't know. Memphis thought they had done their due diligence in the case.

Is there a difference in one case to the other...???

The NCAA's retroactive investigation with Duke came up with a student-athlete who took money from a middle-man before he was enrolled at the university where he played basketball.

The investigation around Memphis has followed a test taken so a player COULD enroll at a university to play basketball. The university, technically, "was unaware" Rose should not have been eligible if they wrap themselves in their cloak of "due diligence."

Duke's investigation took the better part of four years to conclude no wrong-doing.
John Calipari's UMass investigation took seven weeks.
Missouri's 1996 case took about a month.
The Memphis case took about seven months...

Should Memphis have any leg to stand on here...?
Or, when the NCAA finds something, are you screwed...???
Regardless of the "when" and regardless of your own detective work in the matter in question... and even if your info and recon eventually falls one way or the other...

Those of us at OSG HQ think it's the latter, and Coach Cal's past at UMass didn't help matters.