After a four-month investigation, the UNM football team will suffer self-imposed sanctions after NCAA allegations of academic misconduct.
The University responded to those allegations Jan. 7 in a 47-page report, concluding that the football program was guilty of three of the four violations.
The NCAA charged that in 2004 and 2005, UNM had two assistant coaches help four recruits and a then Lobo obtain fraudulent course credit through Fresno Pacific University.
Two of the five athletes played for the Lobos, and none are on the current roster.
The assistant coaches have left the program, and none of the players or coaches have been named.
Head coach Rocky Long has not been charged with any misconduct.
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UNM Athletics Director Paul Krebs said at a Jan. 9 news conference that the program will take responsibility for the wrongdoing.
"It's important that we recognize that we need to be held accountable for our actions," he said. "Members of our staff and members of our university and our athletic program need and will be held accountable."
Krebs announced the self-imposed punishment Wednesday, which is detailed in the response to the NCAA.
UNM will cut two scholarships and reduce the number of junior college signees by 50 percent.
The football program will also reduce the number of coaches who can recruit off-campus from seven to six.
The number of official visits from recruits will be reduced from 50 to 45, and the football program will be on a two-year probation.
UNM based the sanctions on similar cases the NCAA has dealt with.
Krebs called the self-imposed punishment fair, but the NCAA can enforce harsher penalty if it sees fit.
The remaining charge was that a current assistant coach obstructed the NCAA's investigation into the matter.
But Krebs said UNM is refuting that allegation.
"Based upon all the information that we've gathered, all of our research, all the evidence that we've reviewed, we do not believe that our coach was guilty of obstruction of the investigation," he said.
In regard to the misconduct that did happen, Krebs said UNM had a strong staff and methods to prevent such occurrences, but that those methods need to be improved.
He said a few individuals' choices have hurt the program, and UNM will do what is necessary to prevent it from happening again.
"There were two letters of expectations that were delivered to members of our staff regarding our expectations in terms of future behavior," he said. "There are some other corrective actions that we're also taking that are not self-imposed penalties but actions that we took as a University ... in trying to sure up our processes. Trying to figure out what we can do better as an administration so we can avoid this kind of embarrassment in the future."
