Memphis Determines Its Innocence

What a bombshell from the University of Memphis. It has exhaustively determined that it has found nothing to suggest Derrick Rose did not take his own SAT test. Just for good measure it has also concluded that even if -- somehow -- it did turn out that someone other than Derrick Rose took the SAT there was no way the school could have known. Therefore, in Memphis' humble opinion, there should be no punishment of Memphis.

The main thrust of the document (PDF) seems to be to make it clear that Memphis knew nothing. This should not be surprising since it will be a document that Memphis plans to submit to the NCAA as part of its defense.

Sure the Memphis Athletic Department was alerted by the NCAA as early as last May that the SAT score in Rose's name had been invalidated. And sure, the Tigers were actually informed about the potential grade changing issues back in 2007.

They looked closely at that. Specifically, they asked Derrick Rose about it, and he said he knew nothing about it. That was apparently good enough for everyone.

In any event, Memphis claims in its current response to the NCAA it was "in no position to know of a problem" at the time of Rose's participation because he had been certified on behalf of the NCAA. Memphis claims to have exercised "due diligence" in the fall of 2007 and took all "reasonable steps" to confirm that Rose was eligible.

In other words, Memphis had deniability of knowing anything was wrong and, with the NCAA certifying Rose's transcript, it was no longer their problem.