Jessica De La Rosa didn't want to talk to the NCAA, especially since she was an athlete who could lose her eligibility, but the tragic circumstances of her boyfriend's death and a potential lawsuit against the University of Baylor by Patrick Dennehy's biological father forced her to tell the truth.

	Jessica De La Rosa, center, seated next to Patrick Dennehy's mother during memorial for the slain basketball player, helped to expose wide-ranging corruption at Baylor.

De La Rosa's admission that she accepted $130 from a Baylor coach for a 90-mile cab ride from Waco to a Dallas airport, and her corroboration on claims that Dennehy received illegal payments from coaches ultimately led to the resignations of Baylor coach Dave Bliss and athletic director Tom Stanton.

Jessica Bunge didn't run to the NCAA, either. Bunge, the victim of an domestic assault and false imprisonment by former Missouri player Ricky Clemons last season, didn't come forward with allegations of NCAA violations (academic fraud, cash and gifts) until Clemons crashed an all-terrain vehicle during a Fourth of July party at University of Missouri president Elson Floyd's home. That Floyd recently had been asked by Tigers coach Quinn Snyder to befriend Clemons in the wake of his conviction on the two misdemeanor charges apparently prompted Bunge to meet with an NCAA investigator.

The NCAA and Missouri are still investigating the validity of her allegations.

"They (coaches) do underestimate how much girlfriends do know,'' said Bunge, a former Missouri student now attending a college in the Chicago area. "(Information) is something that you stumble upon. If (Clemons) were frustrated then he would vent it out and tell me. (The NCAA) seemed very interested (in the information).''

In an era of high-tech gadgetry and electronic paper trails, a player's girlfriend could be a coach's worst nightmare. In two high-profile scandals that made headlines in college basketball's offseason, girlfriends were the primary source of information, two whistleblowers who rocked the foundation of one team and prompted a probe of one of the sports' rising powers. It is a trend that likely won't stop with Baylor and Missouri given that girlfriends of players often become privy to the goings on behind a team's closed doors, including potential illicit behavior of a coach, player or a booster.

The whistleblowers

Some of college sports' most notable scandals came to light because of their conviction to right wrongs they discovered. But in the wake of their decision to speak up, whistleblowers often endure a backlash from both their college employers and the college's fans. Four whistleblowers shared their tales with ESPN.com: Norma McGill: Since getting involved in the Maurice Clarett saga with her accusations of academic wrongdoing, Norma McGill, a former graduate assistant at Ohio State, has been homeless at times. Jan Ganglehoff: She toppled one of college basketball's rising powers, costing Minnesota coach Clem Haskins his job. But since coming forward with admissions that she wrote papers for athletes, Jan Ganglehoff has suffered from bouts of depression, undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery, and lost 80 pounds. Linda Bensel-Meyers: After raising concerns about academic wrongdoing following Tennessee's 1998 national championship football season, Linda Bensel-Meyers was stripped of her administrative duties and her office was relocated to the basement. Jan Kemp: Two decades after blowing the whistle on academic wrongdoing at Georgia, where she was fired and then reinstated after winning a lawsuit, someone finally said thank you to Jan Kemp.

"We do know an awful lot of what's going on,'' said De La Rosa, a hurdler on the University of New Mexico's track team. She had dated Dennehy for two years, and reportedly shared a bank account together before he transferred to Baylor a year ago.

"I think (coaches) sometimes forget that we're right there or that when the guys come home to us or pick up the phone they call us up and tell us,'' she said. "We're a huge part of their lives. I was even surprised by everything I knew. I couldn't believe how much I knew. But at the time I wasn't thinking in that perspective.''

De La Rosa isn't just talking about violations. She claims she knew that Dennehy was going to do something before a game against Air Force during his sophomore season at New Mexico. Dennehy ultimately stormed off the court and into the locker room in Colorado, leaving the Lobos and then coach Fran Fraschilla stunned.

"I knew the whole thing that was going to happen at Air Force, I knew it that entire week that he was going to do something,'' said De La Rosa, who has been withheld from training with New Mexico's track team while she awaits reinstatement by the NCAA for the winter season. "He wasn't even going to go on the trip; I had to talk him into that. But we (girlfriends) know an awful lot.''

De La Rosa said she decided to talk to the NCAA and Baylor officials once Patrick Dennehy Sr. went public with allegations that his son had been paid for tuition, expenses and a car while he was not on scholarship at Baylor.

"At that point I called our media relations department at UNM and they told me that I could either go to the NCAA or they would come to me,'' De La Rosa said. "I wasn't a big fan of it at all. I don't really like the NCAA. I'm still not reinstated and they're still giving me a hard time. They've got bigger problems than me taking $130 dollars for a cab ride.''

Chuck Smrt, a former NCAA investigator, said girlfriends have long been targeted as a possible source in NCAA investigations.

"You're always trying to talk to people who can corroborate information,'' said Smrt, who stayed behind in Kansas City when the NCAA relocated its headquarters to Indianapolis. He now works the other side of the fence with The Compliance Group, which helps colleges deal with compliance-related issues.

"In some cases, they're valuable, but it's not confined to student-athletes but also to boosters' ex-wives and girlfriends,'' Smrt said. "They're a source like any other source.''

Smrt said the NCAA office often would get calls from a girlfriend soon after a fight. That's when the NCAA would have to assess how quickly they could get to the person because by the following weekend the athlete and the girlfriend could be back together. All the while, they must remain wary that the allegations could be fabricated.

"Anybody that you talk to, you want to examine their credibility,'' Smrt said. "When it's an ex-girlfriend, you have to test and see how reliable they are. When someone transfers to another school, my first question is why and often animosity comes out. That can cloud their impressions. I put girlfriends in the same category as other people that are close to the prospect, but that you have to test their credibility like anyone else.''

De La Rosa said the coaching staffs at New Mexico and Baylor sought her out to make friends with her. It's a trend that goes on around the country to ensure that the girlfriends are involved in the program. But the flip side to that is they sometimes know too much if there is any kind of illicit behavior.

"Sometimes I think (coaches) forget about us, too,'' De La Rosa said. "We do know an awful lot. This wasn't my choice to talk. I was just put in a position where it was inevitable. So, I had to do it to get it over.''

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.