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Derrick Rose, John Calipari reportedly paid six figures to avoid lawsuit from Memphis ticket holders

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Mike Miller

Turns out John Calipari and Derrick Rose are going to pay for Memphis’ vacated 2007-08 season. And it’s a six-figure check.

The former Memphis coach, star and athletic director R.C. Johnson, according to a Memphis Commercial-Appeal story, agreed last year to pay $100,000 settlement to three attorneys who represented “certain ticket holders” to avoid a lawsuit.

Calipari, now the Kentucky coach, also donated his bonus valued at $232,000 to the Memphis scholarship fund. Rose, who left after one season and is now a star with the Chicago Bulls, will reportedly make a “suitable donation” to the fund before 2015.

Why the threat? The ticket holders were miffed about the Tigers’ vacated 38-2 season, which ended with an overtime loss to Kansas in the national title game, make their 2009-10 season tickets and future tickets “potentially” worth less than anticipated, the paper reported.

A 2009 NCAA ruling stripped the school of its wins and receiving an estimated $530,000 from future C-USA tournament and NCAA tournament shares – and didn’t specify any wrongdoing by Rose or Calipari. But a few months after Memphis’ appeal was denied by the NCAA, Rose, Calipari and Johnson signed an agreement to “deny that they are in any way responsible or otherwise liable to” the potential plaintiffs.”

Two of the three schools Calipari’s taken to the Final Four eventually had their appearances vacated: Memphis and Massachusetts. Yet, official documents stipulate he didn’t have any culpability in the violations, something he’s always keen to point out.

Writing a check for a threatened lawsuit would seem significant, no?

Calipari and Rose don’t have to admit they did anything wrong in 2007, but they did pay for it. Still, given what Calipari makes and what Rose makes, it wasn’t a hefty price.

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