Report: Teacher's tip led to Rose probe

Derrick Rose and former Memphis coach John Calipari.
AP

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The 63-page document released by Memphis Tuesday contained some major revelations about the Derrick Rose grade-changing/SAT scandal.

According to the report, the Chicago Public Schools Inspector General’s office was first tipped off to the grade-change and the rumors that someone else took the SAT for Rose by a CPS teacher. When the teacher was later interviewed by the university, she denied making the allegation.

In the report, Memphis claims it has no evidence that Rose did not take the SAT for himself. However, the score has been canceled by the Educational Testing Service that administers it and, according to the report Memphis released, the handwriting expert concluded that Rose "probably did not write the questioned hand-printing or cursive writing" on the form.

ETS spokesman Tom Ewing told ESPN Tuesday afternoon that his organization “can’t cancel a test based on one piece of evidence. There has to be two pieces of evidence.”

The report also claims that the Memphis coaching staff was not involved in and had no knowledge of when Rose took the test and what his scores were.

“Wow, that is completely unbelievable,” said one Division I college assistant coach. “That’s the first thing you know as a college coach. You know every date those tests are given and you find out exactly what the scores were. It’s probably the most important thing in recruiting.”

Rose's grade was changed from a D to a C on June 22, 2007, which rules out one possible candidate. Simeon coach Robert Smith was at the NBA camp at the University of Virginia from June 19-25.

Memphis interviewed Rose about the grade change and he denied knowing anything about it. According to Memphis, the grade change would not have had any effect on his admission to the university or his eligibility with the NCAA Clearinghouse.

The fact that Rose got the OK to play from the clearinghouse is the backbone of Memphis’ argument in the report. ETS did not cancel Rose’s test score until May 5, 2008, which is after the basketball season and his entire academic year at Memphis.

Memphis claims it did not receive any notification of an issue with the test score until that time.

University officials interviewed Rose in the fall of 2007 and he said he took all of his standardized tests himself. He declined to be interviewed about the investigation after he left the school and has made no comment since.

Memphis also has an explanation for the $2,260 in extra travel benefits the NCAA claims the university provided for someone that sources say is Rose’s older brother, Reggie.

According to Memphis, the school had a credit card number on file to charge Reggie Rose's air travel to, but charges to the card were "inadvertently not done on two plane trips.” There were also three instances in which Rose’s hotel room was inadvertently charged to Memphis.

School officials, along with former coach John Calipari via phone from China, will appear before the NCAA infractions committee on Saturday in Indianapolis.

CBS Sports reported Tuesday that Rose's teammate at Memphis, Robert Dozier, has also been implicated in an SAT scandal. Apparently he was unable to enroll at Georgia due to concerns that someone else took his SAT test, and later enrolled at Memphis and played with Rose on the 2007-08 team.