How Far Does This Go?

Written by Josh Cohron | 20 August 2009

It seems that everyone has heard now that John Calipari's 2008 Memphis team will be vacating all of its wins from that season, including their Final Four run. The news doesn't exactly make Calipari look like the cleanest coach in the country. He already had a Final Four at UMass taken away, but wasn't named in the NCAA report. The same should be said this time (except that he was the coach), but it isn't the greatest news ever for UK fans, although I'm sure most will defend him until they are blue... more blue. I don't really care about the loss of 37 of the 38 games Memphis was a part of that year, but one of them irks me. That win also leads to a bigger question.

Allow me to set the scene for you: It's about 4:30PM on Saturday, April, 5, 2008. I am walking out of Keeneland with my friend, Will. Will and I had both taken it on the chin that day at the track and decided to get out while we still had money for refreshments to enjoy during the Final Four games that were starting soon. Our unintelligible conversation turned from our losses to the games. I firmly believed that UCLA was going to absolutely destroy Memphis that evening. The Tigers stood no chance against the mighty UCLA, at least in my mind. Seeing as Will and I had lost quite a bit of cash at the track, we both decided to make all our money back with one bet. We bet $200 on the Memphis/UCLA game. I took the Bruins, he took Coach Cal and Memphis. Within the next eight hours (time was very much irrelevant at that point), Will was calling wanting his cash. I was stunned, but more importantly, I was out $200.

Sixteen months later, Memphis is vacating all their wins from the 2007-08 season. They didn't actually win that game against UCLA! Shouldn't I be entitled to my money? At the very least, shouldn't Will and I call it even? What does that mean for the betting world? I'm sure Vegas and all the gambling websites have some sort of policy about this, but there must be people who lost much more on that game than I did. If Derrick Rose doesn't play in that game... well, there's no point in playing the what-if game. It would be very interesting to see a guy sue to recoup his losses. If you had lost thousands on the game, wouldn't you at least try? I won't be suing anyone, but you better believe I've already texted Will asking about getting my $200 back.