Georgia suspended coach Jim Harrick with pay and withdrew from the SEC and NCAA tournaments Monday after an internal investigation showed three players took a phony class taught by his son.

University president Michael Adams said Monday it isn't clear whether Harrick will be fired. However, sources told ESPN.com's Andy Katz that Harrick expects to be fired, but a dismissal would not occur until the investigation is complete.

		Mon., March 10 Minnesota fans, rejoice. The Golden Gophers topped the dreaded "last four out" list Monday morning in my latest NCAA Tournament projections. With Georgia now out of picture, Minnesota has moved up into the field of 65. Story

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had reported earlier Monday that Harrick was fired. Harrick has three seasons left on a $700,000-per-year contract.

The decisions were made after Georgia's findings of academic fraud involving a number of players who were in a physical education class at the university.

"The evidence and the findings presented to us indicated there was academic fraud," athletics director Vince Dooley said. "There's no evidence at all that coach Harrick knew about what took place."

The Journal-Constitution reported that star forward Jarvis Hayes, a junior and the SEC's second-leading scorer this season, will announce Tuesday that he isn't returning for his senior season and will enter the NBA draft. His twin brother, Jonas, said he is graduating in August and might not return to the team next season, either.

Former Georgia player Tony Cole, who was kicked off the team last year, accused Harrick and his son, an assistant coach, of breaking NCAA rules. Cole said Jim Harrick Jr. paid his bills, did schoolwork and taught a sham class on coaching. Harrick Jr. was fired Wednesday.

The allegations at Georgia first surfaced Feb. 27 in an ESPN interview with Cole.

Cole said he never attended the class but received an "A". Two other players -- starters Chris Daniels and Rashad Wright -- were also in the class. Dooley said all 31 students in the class -- including 10 Georgia athletes -- got an A, but there was no evidence that anyone else took part in the fraud.

Dooley said Wright and Daniels have been declared ineligible, but could be reinstated for next season. Dooley and Adams decided to pull the program from postseason play because of the serious nature of the academic fraud allegations.

"I imagine that this is as bad as it gets," Dooley said.

Georgia (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 AP) was a lock to receive a third straight invitation to the NCAA Tournament, which would have been the longest such streak in school history. The Bulldogs (19-8, 11-5 Southeastern Conference) were to play Arkansas on Thursday in New Orleans.

Georgia's absence from the SEC tournament could cause the conference to re-seed the tournament, Katz reports, as it did in 1991 when Auburn was declared ineligible. SEC officials were unavailable for comment Monday.

Georgia's forfeiture would mean the worst team in the SEC -- Arkansas -- would receive a bye into the quarterfinals. Georgia was the No. 3 seed out of the East playing No. 6 Arkansas out of the West in Thursday's first round.

Jarvis Hayes said the team is being unfairly punished for the actions of a few individuals.

"(President Adams) spoke to us," he said. "He told us, 'We rejoice as a team. We suffer as a team.' He's not suffering. I think he did it to save his own job."

"They took it from us," Hayes said. "They panicked and it was a mistake they made by hiring a basketball coach to teach a basketball class five days before the semester started."

The news caps a recent spate of scandals in men's college basketball, including: suspensions of 12 players for using a school access code to make phone calls at Villanova, forfeits of six wins and boycotts of two other games at St. Bonaventure, and claims by a former student that he wrote papers for players for payment at Fresno State.

"Sports is really a very nice -- usually -- sideline to our main function here," he said. "The main issue to me ... is to ensure you deal with the academic integrity of the place. Deal with the one course where there is questionable activity, correct it, and move forward."

Reached at his home Monday night, Harrick declined to discuss his suspension.

"Absolutely not," he said. "Thank you for calling."

Fred Gibson, a backup guard, complained about the university's decision.

"It's not fair, man," Gibson said. "It's not fair to all the other players. We didn't do anything wrong."

Cole's attorney, Steve Sadow of Atlanta, said his client was upset that Georgia called off its season.

"He's sad for his teammates," Sadow said. "He doesn't think they should bear the brunt of what happened. It's not the players' fault. It's the University of Georgia's fault and the coaches' fault."

Sadow said that Cole never would have made the allegations if Harrick had let him return to the team after charges were dropped in a campus rape case. Cole was kicked off the team but allowed to remain on scholarship; he left school in January.

"It's so ironic that if the school had continued to let him play like they promised, there wouldn't be a story, there wouldn't be an investigation," Sadow said. "That doesn't make it right, but it's ironic that's the way it turned out."

Dooley said Wright and Daniels have been declared ineligible, but could be reinstated for next season. Both are juniors.

Dooley and Adams decided to drop out of the postseason because of the serious nature of the academic fraud allegations. They also found evidence of unethical conduct, which Dooley said "can be many things, one of which is not telling the truth."

"I imagine that this is as bad as it gets," the longtime AD said.

Even if the team played, it would have been difficult to win any games without Wright and Daniels. The Bulldogs usually go with only seven players.

Wright and Daniels could not be reached for comment.

Harrick's career has been one of success on the court and trouble off it. He is one of only three coaches -- Eddie Sutton and Lefty Driesell are the others -- to take four schools to the NCAA Tournament. Harrick has a 470-235 record in 23 seasons as a college head coach and led UCLA to the 1995 national championship.

But this is the second time Harrick has been disciplined because of ethical lapses. He was fired by UCLA in 1996 for lying about an expense report.

Harrick then went to Rhode Island and took that school to the regional finals of the 1998 NCAA tournament. And he also has been accused of improprieties during his two years there.

A former secretary there alleged that Harrick had grades changed for players, had student managers write papers for players and arranged for players to receive lodging, cars and money from boosters. In addition, Harrick Jr. was accused of falsifying hotel and meal reports for recruits when he worked for his father at Rhode Island.

Lamar Odom played for Harrick at Rhode Island and allegedly received some of the illegal benefits. Now playing for the Los Angeles Clippers, he denied the allegations before Monday night's game against the Hawks in Atlanta.

"They're just taking everything away from him," Odom said. "Why are they doing that?"

He remains close to Harrick and described the coach as "distraught" when they spoke after the Georgia allegations were made public.

"They deserve to be in the tournament," Odom said. "It's a shame. It's too bad such a bad thing happened to a good man. Too bad for the kids."

Cole played just 16 games for the Bulldogs last year before being suspended after he and two other athletes were accused in the campus rape. While the charges were eventually dropped, Cole was kicked off the basketball team for repeated violations.

Since then he has been charged with trespassing and passing a bad check in Athens before returning home to Baton Rouge.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.