In the middle of the spirited father-son conversation we both somehow entered the delorean and traveled all the way back to 2007-2008 to find out when and where Derrick Rose went to school. And as it turns out, Rose lead the Memphis Tigers to 38 wins and took his team all the way to the NCAA Championship game.
But don't tell the NCAA that because according to them, that isn't what happened in 2007-2008. According to them, Kansas won the national title by playing nobody.
How is that possible you ask? The answer can be found within the most ludicrous rule in sports.
The NCAA Committee of Infractions stripped the Memphis Tigers of their 38 wins and Final Four appearance because they found several major rule violations, including a fraudulent SAT score from Derrick Rose, and 2,000 dollars in travel expenses provided for Rose's brother. The NCAA couldn't touch Rose, who bolted for the NBA later that summer or Memphis' coach John Calipari who was the coach at Kentucky when the sanctions came down. So the NCAA decided instead to act as if Memphis' season never happened instead of conducting their usual punishment of voiding the school's scholarships and putting the program on probation.
Except it did happen, and the NCAA can never say otherwise.
The sheer stupidity that lies within whatever clause that enables the NCAA to take away wins makes the BCS look like the poster child for how to properly determine results in college sports. The association cannot erase the countless memories that exist regarding the 2008 Memphis Tigers; and at least 38 of those memories include the team winning. The statistics that Rose and his fellow Tigers put up in their time at Memphis are still archived by the Tigers team website and ESPN.com. Memphis University already raked in the revenue from ticket sales, concessions sold, and media access that the very successful 2007-2008 season provided them. CBS and the other networks that covered the tournament already got their advertising money from the ratings of Memphis' six tournament games.
Besides, even if the NCAA could take all of that away, there still would exist a long list of permanent results that would not make any sense in the history books.
The NCAA may have taken away wins from Memphis, but the letter of the law did not say anything about voiding losses. So according to the NCAA's version of the 2008 NCAA tournament, the Memphis Tigers were a number 1 seed in the NCAA's hallowed playoffs with a record of 0-1. Which has never happened in the history of the tournament. Also, if Memphis' win against Texas-Arlington didn't happen, then a 16 seed advanced in the NCAA tournament for the first time in tournament history. But Texas-Arlington did not play Mississippi State in the second round, so clearly the Mavericks did not advance. By that same logic, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Texas, and UCLA all just magically vanished from the tournament bracket without losing to anybody.
Those scenarios make sense? Didn't think so.
The fact of the matter is that yes Memphis was in violation of the rules, but it was the NCAA's own fault for punishing the wrong people. The culprits the NCAA failed to catch were Derrick Rose and John Calipari, and the NCAA couldn't punish one and didn't punish the other. Rose fulfilled his NCAA obligation to play for one year in college before becoming draft eligible. The NCAA could not touch Rose once he became an NBA player in part because of their own rule.
As for John Calipari, the NCAA may have taken wins away from the coach, but this was the second time Calipari committed major violations against at a program he coached for. Calipari did the exact same thing at the University of Massachusetts and was not punished when the NCAA brought down the hammer on UMass because he had left for Memphis. In fact, Calipari coached another full season at Memphis before the punishments came down on the program. With no restrictions against coaches who are under investigation of violating NCAA rules, Calipari bolted and got off without punishment. The NCAA was left only to shake it's fist angrily as coach Cal built up another program at Kentucky.
The NCAA's ability to police their sport is about as effective as a squirt gun in a wildfire. So instead of improving their own enforcement.the NCAA attempted to sweep their mistakes under the rug rather than fixing their own policing of the game. Sorry to break it to the higher ups in Indianapolis, but because you took away Memphis' wins on paper does not mean that they did not happen. Not only because there are other pieces of paper that say otherwise, but because millions of people saw otherwise with their own eyes.
And the NCAA can never take those memories and moments away.
How is that possible you ask? The answer can be found within the most ludicrous rule in sports.
The NCAA Committee of Infractions stripped the Memphis Tigers of their 38 wins and Final Four appearance because they found several major rule violations, including a fraudulent SAT score from Derrick Rose, and 2,000 dollars in travel expenses provided for Rose's brother. The NCAA couldn't touch Rose, who bolted for the NBA later that summer or Memphis' coach John Calipari who was the coach at Kentucky when the sanctions came down. So the NCAA decided instead to act as if Memphis' season never happened instead of conducting their usual punishment of voiding the school's scholarships and putting the program on probation.
Except it did happen, and the NCAA can never say otherwise.
The sheer stupidity that lies within whatever clause that enables the NCAA to take away wins makes the BCS look like the poster child for how to properly determine results in college sports. The association cannot erase the countless memories that exist regarding the 2008 Memphis Tigers; and at least 38 of those memories include the team winning. The statistics that Rose and his fellow Tigers put up in their time at Memphis are still archived by the Tigers team website and ESPN.com. Memphis University already raked in the revenue from ticket sales, concessions sold, and media access that the very successful 2007-2008 season provided them. CBS and the other networks that covered the tournament already got their advertising money from the ratings of Memphis' six tournament games.
Besides, even if the NCAA could take all of that away, there still would exist a long list of permanent results that would not make any sense in the history books.
The NCAA may have taken away wins from Memphis, but the letter of the law did not say anything about voiding losses. So according to the NCAA's version of the 2008 NCAA tournament, the Memphis Tigers were a number 1 seed in the NCAA's hallowed playoffs with a record of 0-1. Which has never happened in the history of the tournament. Also, if Memphis' win against Texas-Arlington didn't happen, then a 16 seed advanced in the NCAA tournament for the first time in tournament history. But Texas-Arlington did not play Mississippi State in the second round, so clearly the Mavericks did not advance. By that same logic, Mississippi State, Michigan State, Texas, and UCLA all just magically vanished from the tournament bracket without losing to anybody.
Those scenarios make sense? Didn't think so.
The fact of the matter is that yes Memphis was in violation of the rules, but it was the NCAA's own fault for punishing the wrong people. The culprits the NCAA failed to catch were Derrick Rose and John Calipari, and the NCAA couldn't punish one and didn't punish the other. Rose fulfilled his NCAA obligation to play for one year in college before becoming draft eligible. The NCAA could not touch Rose once he became an NBA player in part because of their own rule.
As for John Calipari, the NCAA may have taken wins away from the coach, but this was the second time Calipari committed major violations against at a program he coached for. Calipari did the exact same thing at the University of Massachusetts and was not punished when the NCAA brought down the hammer on UMass because he had left for Memphis. In fact, Calipari coached another full season at Memphis before the punishments came down on the program. With no restrictions against coaches who are under investigation of violating NCAA rules, Calipari bolted and got off without punishment. The NCAA was left only to shake it's fist angrily as coach Cal built up another program at Kentucky.
The NCAA's ability to police their sport is about as effective as a squirt gun in a wildfire. So instead of improving their own enforcement.the NCAA attempted to sweep their mistakes under the rug rather than fixing their own policing of the game. Sorry to break it to the higher ups in Indianapolis, but because you took away Memphis' wins on paper does not mean that they did not happen. Not only because there are other pieces of paper that say otherwise, but because millions of people saw otherwise with their own eyes.
And the NCAA can never take those memories and moments away.
