Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley admitted he was responsible for pulling the team out of the SEC and NCAA tournaments, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in Thursday's editions.

In a March 10 memo to University of Georgia President Michael Adams obtained by the newspaper, Dooley wrote: "Based upon the investigation to date, it has been determined that academic fraud and unethical conduct have in fact occurred within the men's basketball program at [Georgia]. After conferring with [SEC commissioner Mike] Slive, my staff and investigative counsel, it is the Athletic Association's intention to withdraw . . . from both the SEC and NCAA tournaments."

Dooley wrote in the memo that it was his intention to "immediately suspend [coach] Jim Harrick Sr. with pay pending the investigation, effectively immediately."

Adams had earlier been criticized for making the decision to pull the Bulldogs out of the poststeason tournaments. However, Dooley said he and Adams discussed the situation and "it was not fair" for Adams to take the majority of the criticism.

"That was my recommendation," Dooley said in the report. "[Adams] was out of the country to Costa Rica, and I had gotten back [from Wyoming] and found out about the academic fraud and unethical conduct. He did not have privy to what we had discovered."

Dooley said he made the decision because Georgia would have likely had to forfeit games and return tournament earnings because of the scandal.

"Although it is painful, it was the right thing to do," Dooley told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "You have a responsibility to do it. If you don't do it, then I think you're ignoring your responsibility. I think that would be noted by the [NCAA] infractions committee."