30 biggest college basketball scandals of all time

6. Derrick Rose’s SAT brings down a banner

John Calipari is already linked to one scandal on this list since he was the head coach at UMass when Marcus Camby took money from an agent, vacating the Minutemen’s trip to the Final Four in 1996. A similar situation occurred with Calipari at Memphis in 2008, this time involving star point guard Derrick Rose.

The Tigers were a dominant team in 2008, advancing all the way to the national championship game, and Rose was the star point guard. Rose averaged 14.9 points per game, 4.7 assists, and 4.5 rebounds per game as the Tigers nearly walked away with a title.

A month after Memphis lost the championship, the NCAA sent a letter to the school claiming that Rose had an “invalidated standardized test score” dating back to his high school days. Upon further review, it became clear that Rose hadn’t actually taken the SAT’s, allowing another student to take the test with his name.

Since Rose didn’t actually take and pass the test, the Educational Testing Service voided Rose’s score, which made him retroactively ineligible. Memphis officials argued that they were made aware of the controversy surrounding Rose’s scores and did an investigation when he arrived on campus but allowed Rose to compete when they couldn’t find evidence that he cheated.

That wasn’t good enough for the NCAA, which ordered Memphis to vacate its entire 2007-2008 season, including their appearance in the championship game. The situation even took a legal turn when Rose and Calipari, along with Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson, settled a lawsuit over the vacated season with ticket holders for $100,000.