Report: Memphis Under Investigation for Major Violations During Calipari's Tenure

This has to be the absolute last thing on Earth the Kentucky administration and fans wanted to hear. Less than two months after one of the nation's most prestigious basketball programs snatched John Calipari from the University of Memphis, it has now been revealed that Memphis is under investigation by the NCAA for major violations. Obviously, these allegations took place during Calipari's tenure at Memphis.

The infractions at hand involve some possibly nefarious practices during an SAT exam for an unnamed player and that the university provided $2,260 worth of travel expenses for an "associate" of a player. Both of these allegations occurred during the 2007-08 season.

As the Commercial Appeal notes, the only player who played for the Tigers in the 2007-2008 season was Derrick Rose. Thus, it's pretty likely he was the team member in question, as the university allegedly committed "knowing fraudulence or misconduct" in concerns to his SAT test. Because of this, the team could be forced to vacate the 2008 national championship appearance, not to mention the NCAA-record 38 regular season wins.

As for Calipari, he may have dodged (another) bullet for now. He has not been named in the report of findings by the NCAA offices, though his attendance at Memphis' June 6 hearing with the NCAA Committee on Infractions has been requested.

It's still far too early in the process to make a legitimate comparison, but it almost seems eerily similar to the situation at Indiana with Kelvin Sampson. The Wildcats took a chance on a guy who has the reputation to be slick enough to get around rules from time to time, and they may end up paying dearly for it in the long run.

A major difference, however, is that Sampson had already been publicly handled by the NCAA before Indiana even hired him. Still, when a storied program goes after someone without a squeaky-clean record, they know they are gambling. We know Calipari left the University of Massachusetts with some allegations of wrong-doing when it came to Marcus Camby. He escaped any personal punishment, but the stigma lingered. It will be tough to shake said stigma in the wake of these charges, even if he really didn't have anything to do with the incidents.

As for Memphis, current head coach Josh Pastner was not on staff for any of the charges, thus, he'll come away from the incident unscathed personally. Professionally, though, he could be handcuffed in future recruiting, depending on how the NCAA finds the university.

Stay tuned, there is certainly much more to come on this story.