The NCAA penalized UNM's football program Aug. 20 in response to the Lobos' violation of association rules, including academic fraud.
Two former assistant coaches helped prospective athletes obtain fraudulent course credits from another university.
In its decision, the NCAA imposed three years of probation, reducing the team's potential scholarships from 25 to 20 and allowing only six coaches to recruit out of state.
"We are all disappointed by the inexcusable actions of two former assistant football coaches back in 2004-05 who forgot the most important lesson we teach our student-athletes is the lesson of fair play," President David Schmidly said in a statement.
Vice President of Athletics Paul Krebs said the University had first been investigated on the claims in 2007, and, at that time, UNM decided to self-impose some penalties, including two years' probation on the program.
"The self-imposed penalties were a recognition that we agreed with the NCAA's allegations, and we thought the allegations against the University were in fact correct and truthful," Krebs said.
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Head football coach Rocky Long was never accused of any wrongdoing, but he has taken full responsibility for being in charge when the incident occurred. He said this experience has helped to build a stronger program.
"The confidence that the administration showed in our program once they found out that it was only two assistant coaches involved - I think the support they have given to the coaching staff and the football program has been outstanding," Long said. "When you get good support, it obviously makes a better organization."
Krebs said the program has learned its lesson and will never allow something like this to happen again.
"I think we recognize that this is an embarrassment to the University, and none of us want to be in this situation in the future," he said.
According to Krebs and Long, the program can challenge the NCAA decision but will not likely do so.
"The NCAA has acknowledged that academic fraud is the most serious of all violations in their mind, so they did add additional sanctions," Krebs said. "We accept their sanctions at this point and have moved on."
Long said there will have to be adjustments made to the program. He said recruiting will be different and the process may have to be reworked.
Scholarship reductions could also hurt the number of walk-ons on the team who are typically eligible to earn scholarships, Long said.
"Really it has nothing to do with this year's team, and this year's team is going about their business like always," Long said.
