SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah's athletic program was placed on three years' probation by the NCAA on Wednesday for rules violations, that included meals for men's basketball players and academic fraud on the football team.

The Utes may still participate in postseason tournaments and no restrictions were placed on TV appearances.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions announced the punishment after a two-year investigation of a university review.

		Thursday, July 31 Tom Yaeger said Utah's stellar academic record and the Utes propensity to lead clean, legal lives was a factor in handing down punishment. The NCAA infractions committee chair, who is the commissioner of the Colonial Athletic Association as well, certainly gave the picture of the Utes' extra meals, workouts and dysfunctional relationship with the compliance department as serious violations. But Yaeger stopped short of handing down a postseason ban. The penalties are harsh when it comes to recruiting, with limitations on scholarships, visits and length of visits. But giving Utah life in the postseason is all that really matters. The Utes could have been hammered even more based on Yaeger's report. The violations by themselves aren't that serious and Majerus has an explanation for each one. But Yaeger said this report would look more serious to the casual reader in the future who didn't know the specifics. One aspect that isn't in the report is the subjective nature of punishment. Utah's image as a team of "true" student-athletes meant the Utes got favorable treatment.

Infractions committee chairman Tom Yeager said the violations 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.

"This case may sound a lot worse when you actually hear all the details and all the nuances,'' he added.

University President Bernie Machen said at a news conference that the school accepts its punishment.

"This has been a very painful, but yet a very constructive process for the university,'' 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.

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

Other than one incident involving two football players, there were no academic violations. Athletic director Chris Hill said there also was no wrongdoing involving boosters providing athletes with money, which would have led to much more severe sanctions than Wednesday's.

"Those are very scary areas for an athletic director and I feel our staff was very diligent in those areas,'' Hill said. "That doesn't discount that I own these responsibilities and that's my job.''

The bulk of the NCAA's concerns with the basketball team centered on meals that coach Rick Majerus bought for players -- a rule that has been changed to allow for such meals as long as each one is documented.

The report said Majerus told the NCAA he thought meals he bought for players at local restaurants were allowed because he lives in a hotel near the university. Coaches are allowed to host athletes for home meals.

Coaches can now buy meals for players but must document each one.

Had the meals been held in Majerus' hotel suite, he said they would have been OK. Majerus described the meals more as meetings, when he would discuss personal matters, such as academics or an upcoming church mission, and give advice.

"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,''' Majerus said.

Yeager said although the meals may have involved a vague area of NCAA rules, Majerus made little effort to make sure the purchases were allowable -- bolstering the committee's larger concern that Utah's compliance efforts were lacking.

The NCAA also said the length of daily and weekly practices by the basketball team went beyond what the organization allows.

Other infractions found by the committee:

-- Basketball staff arranged for a plane ticket for a player to attend a funeral. The player did end up paying for the ticket, but the university did not properly seek reimbursement.

-- Men's basketball players got excessive meals and meal per diem allowances, mainly through "nominal amounts'' of cash during road trips.

-- An athletic department tutor provided 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.

-- In May 1997, a female track-and-field athlete dropped her course load to below 12 credit hours one day before she competed.

The university had taken several corrective steps before Wednesday's announcement, including hiring a new NCAA compliance officer, freezing the salaries of Hill and Majerus for one and two years, respectively, and reducing the number of recruiting visits for the men's basketball team.

Majerus, who defended his meetings with players over meals, would not say what he felt about the NCAA penalties, but planned to write the organization a letter.

"I don't need to comment on the NCAA,'' he said. "I can only comment on what I did and why I did it. I think I've addressed that.''

The univesity's self-investigation began after former ski coach Pat Miller threatened a lawsuit in April 2001, claiming he was fired for falsifying a recruit's academic records. Miller said his violations were far less serious than others within the athletic department.

He said those violations involved fraudulent academic credit, tutoring and student eligibility. The university looked into the allegation and sent its findings to the NCAA, which then started its own probe.