Nicholls State University has been placed on probation for four years and faces several other penalties for "gross academic fraud" and other NCAA violations in football, men's basketball and volleyball.

The case involved three former employees -- the head basketball coach, an assistant football coach and an athletics academic advisor -- committing academic fraud using online correspondence courses from Brigham Young University. The fraud involved 28 student-athletes and one prospective student-athlete.

The violations took place in August 2003 and the spring of 2004 at the Thibodaux, Louisiana-based institution, according to the public report from the Division I Committee on Infractions.

In its report, the committee noted that the university president stated that most of the case involved "a series of actions by now-former university employees that constitute(d) gross academic fraud and a violation of ethical responsibilities to the students they served and the institution."

In particular, the fraud included providing answers to lesson assignments and exams, falsifying academic documents and attempting to cover up the fraud. Those attempts included lying about the fraud and asking others, including high-school coaches who falsely were listed as proctors and the student-athletes themselves, to lie as well. The fraud also involved falsely listing as course proctors individuals who did no more than receive the course materials by mail and pass them to the former coaches and advisor.

None of the involved former university employees responded to repeated requests from NCAA enforcement staff to submit a written response to the allegations or appeared at the infractions hearing.

"This case illustrates the ease with which individuals can manipulate and then breach security protocols for online correspondence courses," the committee said in its report. "In turn, this case underscores the need for supervision and monitoring of these courses, including registration for and selection of courses, identification and conduct of proctors, and exclusion of coaches from involvement."

The committee noted that the university registrar first questioned the courses in August 2004, when a number of courses for student-athletes were reviewed. After the registrar conferred with the provost, the university immediately began investigating.

At the time, the university's compliance coordinator was out of work with a serious illness. According to the committee, the university tried to cover the coordinator's duties without hiring a replacement.

"The violations reported here tested the system when it was weak," the committee wrote in its report. "The committee is sympathetic to the situation in which the university found itself, but notes that institutional control is and must be a first and overriding priority."

Based on the use of the online courses, some student-athletes were allowed to compete while ineligible, the committee said. NCAA legislation prohibits the use of correspondence courses taken from another institution in determining a student-athlete's progress toward degree.

In its public report, the committee emphasized that the university's faculty athletics representative was "notably absent" in the review of the courses for eligibility purposes and the investigation of academic fraud.

"While the committee fully acknowledges that each member institution should use the FAR as best fits its internal structure and campus situation, the committee nonetheless was concerned that in an inquiry directed at academic irregularities, the faculty member with athletics responsibilities played no part."

The committee praised Nicholls State for catching the academic fraud through the diligence of the registrar; undertaking a prompt and thorough investigation; and for imposing significant penalties, including the university's exclusion from Southland Conference television packages in football and men's basketball.

But the committee concluded that additional penalties were warranted because of the seriousness of the violations and the complicity of the involved employees, the student-athletes and outside individuals.

The penalties include public reprimand and censure; four years of probation; and exclusion from the conference television packages in football and men's basketball. The exclusion from the television package and three years probation had been imposed by the institution.

Other penalties imposed by the committee included the loss of one scholarship in men's basketball, independent of any reductions in scholarships due to new NCAA academic-reform standards.

Further, the football team, which competes as a member of Division I-AA, must implement the following reductions through the 2007-08 academic year (imposed by the university): reduce by five the number of official visits; delay the start of preseason practice by three days; reduce off-campus recruiting by football coaches by seven days; and award no more than 60 scholarships in 2005-06 and 2006-07 (the maximum is 63).

The women's volleyball team, meanwhile, must vacate all wins from 2003 in which a particular student-athlete competed; the football team must do the same for victories in which a particular student-athlete competed. Among other penalties, the volleyball team also must vacate its 2003 Southland Conference championship and pay a $10,000 fine for the ineligible student-athlete's participation in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship (university imposed).

In addition, the former employees must appear before the Committee on Infractions if they should seek employment with an NCAA member institution over the next several years. The institution seeking to employ them must appear before the committee as well. The assistant football coach is subject to this provision for eight years, the advisor for six and the head basketball coach for five.

This is the first major infractions case for Nicholls State, and the school is now subject to the repeat-violator provision of the NCAA bylaws for five years. Because the violations involved academic fraud, the university also must notify its regional accrediting agency.

Members of the Committee on Infractions who heard this case are Paul T. Dee, athletics director, University of Miami (Florida); Gene A. Marsh, chair of the committee and law professor, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Andrea L. Myers, athletics director, Indiana State University; James Park, Jr., attorney, Lexington, Kentucky; Josephine R. Potuto, law professor, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; and Thomas E. Yeager, commissioner, Colonial Athletic Conference.