You are 100% missing the point; although, I think you are doing so intentionally.
They determine eligibility based on the athlete and then the school’s self-report. The NCAA does not go back and see if somebody’s transcripts are suspicious, or that their ACT score suddenly jumped from a previous score. They don’t know what the previous score is. They assume the information is correct.
So, if a student submits a fraudulent ACT score, the NCAA does not try to validate it. The NCAA accepts it as true until shown otherwise.
So, when Derrick Rose submitted his score, and transcripts, the NCAA said something like, “okay, these scores fit the criteria for qualification. You are cleared.”
When the ETS ruled his ACT score invalid, this information was sent to the NCAA (most likely by the school, which had to comply with the rule), the NCAA said something like, “so, based on this new information, it looks like you really were not qualified. You would have known you are submitting a fraudulent score, so your school’s record for that year will be erased. You should never have done that, and your actions let your teammates down.”
So, when John Calipari complained that “the NCAA Clearinghouse cleared Rose, so why did they do this to us?” he was BSing everyone because he knew the answer.
Thus, you saying “the NCAA cleared him,” does not mean squat. Just because a police officer did not write any tickets yesterday does not mean that everybody was obeying the speed limit.
This is just too much dumb-ass to have to deal with on a Sunday.
