Utes get three years' probation

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah basketball coach Rick Majerus never saw a crime in buying a hamburger for a player as they discussed personal matters.

The NCAA didn't either, but the fact that Majerus didn't bother checking on it bolstered the organization's feeling there was a lack of compliance in the school's athletic program, which was placed on three years' probation Wednesday.

Majerus was a little baffled by the punishment.

"I don't think anybody ever said we gained a competitive advantage because 'I had that hamburger with Majerus.' Or in recruiting, somebody would say 'Hey, if I only become a Ute I'll be able to go to Crown Burger with Majerus,"' he said.

The sanctions handed down by the NCAA Committee on Infractions could have been much worse. The Utes may still participate in postseason tournaments and bowl games, no restrictions were placed on TV appearances and they only lose one men's basketball scholarship for the next three seasons.

Committee chairman Tom Yeager said most of the infractions, which included Majerus' springing for meals as well as some academic fraud on the football team, were relatively minor and did not warrant more serious penalties.

"These were not five-course steak meals at the finest restaurant in town," Yeager said.

Still, the committee found a "lack of institutional control," noting the basketball staff "failed to foster an environment of compliance."

The academic fraud was an athletic department tutor providing two football players with a paper for a writing class in 1999. The paper was discovered, the tutor was fired and the athletes failed the course. But the school did not report the violation to the NCAA, Yeager said.

University officials accepted the punishment, relieved it was not more serious.

"This has been a very painful, but yet a very constructive process for the university," university president Bernie Machen said. "As a result of this process we have improved our compliance procedures while maintaining a quality program which emphasizes academic success and academic and athletic excellence."

The NCAA accepted the university's self-imposed sanctions, including cutting one men's basketball scholarship for the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, and added one scholarship penalty for 2006-07.