March 26, 2010

Calipari May Be Asked to Give Back Memphis Bonuses: While at Memphis, coach John Calipari was paid $360,000 in bonuses for a 38-win season and Final Four appearance in 2007-08. Now that they've been taken away due to Derrick Rose's invalid SAT score, the school is considering whether to get the money back. USA Today asks: "With wins gone, should Calipari should give back his Memphis bonuses?"

posted by rcade to basketball at 06:58 PM - 4 comments

Part of me says yes, part of me says no. He did deliver the goods/services for which he was compensated, and the invalidation is due to lax admittance policies/enforcement of NCAA rules by the school.

I guess an analogy would be if I'd gotten a bonus for writing code for Microsoft during their antitrust era that ended up being pulled from the OS later due to settlement or penalty. I delivered what was expected, it's Microsoft's- or in this case the school's- fault that the benefit was later removed.

posted by hincandenza at 10:45 PM on March 26, 2010

I'm intrigued by the possible answer "Only if Memphis also refunds fans' tickets."

Does the university pay a fine to the NCAA for the infraction - or do they get to keep all revenue generated by Calipari's potentially tainted success, including the bonuses they would otherwise be responsible to pay?

I've also never fully understood what taking wins and a Final Four appearance away from a team really means. Are the athletes, coaches, fans, and future stars required to expunge all memories of the season? Just seems like a hollow punishment to me...

posted by MW12 at 09:59 AM on March 27, 2010

if I'd gotten a bonus for writing code for Microsoft during their antitrust era

That only works for me if the code contained something like:

// this will totally prevent competition, but no one will see it until I'm gone and paid suckers!

posted by yerfatma at 10:05 AM on March 27, 2010

If corporate executives who got earnings-based bonuses didn't have to pay them back after the company restated earnings why should Calipari have to?

posted by billsaysthis at 01:18 PM on March 27, 2010

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