Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline says that not a single person he has talked to believes that Derrick Rose took the SAT in question. And Parrish covered Memphis basketball for four years for the Memphis Commercial Appeal. He has good sources in and around the program. He thinks that Memphis now thinks that Rose did not take the questioned SAT.
But, Parrish doesn’t believe that Memphis will, or should be penalized for that.
Excerpt:
When the NCAA told Memphis not to play Angel Garcia, Memphis didn’t play Angel Garcia. When the NCAA told Memphis not to play Matt Simpkins, Memphis didn’t play Matt Simpkins. But then the NCAA came back and told Memphis it could play Matt Simpkins, so Memphis played Matt Simpkins. And this is the way it works. Schools provide standardized test scores and transcripts and anything else the NCAA wants, then the NCAA rules on the eligibility of every player. If the NCAA rules a player ineligible, that player doesn’t play. But it seems to me that when the NCAA tells a school that a player is qualified academically and free to play, a school should not be at risk after the fact, even if the NCAA later learns that an SAT is fraudulent (provided the NCAA doesn’t tie the school to the allegation).
On this charge, the NCAA isn’t accusing Memphis of any wrongdoing.
It’s simply stating that it no longer believes Rose took the questionable SAT.
Again, I don’t doubt that the NCAA is correct in its allegation, but to penalize Memphis for only doing what it was told it could do — which is play Rose — seems like a bad precedent.
Parrish does think that Memphis will get slapped over Reggie Rose’s travel bill, but only to the extent that the school will have to set up a better way of keeping track of who travels with the team, and how to handle the billing process.
