Based on what we know of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, how would he handle the Derrick Rose situation?

Come on, humor me.

Hypothetically, a No. 1 NFL draft pick is found to have falsified his SATs.  He never should have been eligible to play for that top 10 college football program, the one that landed him on national television, took him to the BCS, and skyrocketed his draft stock. 

Based on Roger Goodell's track record, would he not be tempted to fine or suspend that player?

After all, if he can't or won't, who else will?

Not the player's new team. They're afraid of offending their multimillion dollar investment. 

Not the NCAA. When it comes to athletes-turned-professional, they have less jurisdiction than the Podunk Police Department.

However, the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy has expanded the commissioner's disciplinary power to a virtually limitless extent. Goodell has used it to set new precedent, and to serve notice to future offenders.

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By now, we know more than we need to, and more than Derrick Rose ever hoped we would, about his eligibility issues at Memphis.

His decisions—and no matter who else was involved in the artifice, the blame is ultimately Rose's—have contributed to forfeiture of a record number of wins, the denigration of a college basketball program, and the untold financial consequences that go along with it.

Mercifully for Memphis, it could have been much worse.

Yet how is Rose affected?

He got exactly what he intended out of his illegitimate short stint in college hoops, including NBA Draft eligibility, a No. 1 overall selection, and millions in salary and endorsements.

Memo to all teenage basketball phenoms: get through that NCAA Clearinghouse by any means necessary...Because by the time they catch you, they'll no longer have authority over you.

Which brings us to David Stern.

Here's a man so concerned with his league's image that he instituted a dress code. And he's the one man who still has the authority to reprimand Rose.

Whether or not Stern can fine or suspend a player for something he did prior to NBA employment is admittedly above my pay grade. Whether or not he should is far more straightforward.

In Rose, the NBA now has one of those dreaded image problems. A rising young star playing in a major market whose offseason will be remembered not for all the work he put in, but rather for the work he had others do for him.

Unfortunately, Rose probably wasn't the first to cheat on his SAT or have a high school grade adjusted in order to gain admission to an elite Division I program. Nor will he be the last, unless some measure of discipline is meted out.

So Mr. Stern, while this isn't a duty that should have been left to you, we ask that you accept it nonetheless.

After all, if you don't, who will?