HELENA, Mont. -- The Big Sky Conference didn't exactly stick it to four Sacramento State defensive linemen who greased their jerseys for a game.

The players -- Brad Osterhout, Bilal Watkins, Ben Fox and Eric Broden -- were reprimanded Friday but can play against Weber State this weekend.

"The Big Sky was very concerned that coaches may have been involved,'' league commissioner Doug Fullerton said. "Had the coaches been involved, we would have considered this a more serious ethical problem. It appears one player initiated the incident. While we in no way condone this action, we feel that a reprimand is the appropriate response from the Big Sky Conference.''

Osterhout's older brother, Jon, is Sacramento State's defensive line coach and was a former All-America offensive lineman who played for the Hornets from 1995-1999. Athletic director Terry Wanless said Jon Osterhout coached from the press box during the Montana game.

Brad Osterhout told the Sacramento Bee that he supplied the PAM. He said he got the idea after seeing footage of former New York Giants and 49ers nose tackle Jim Burt on a recent television show.

Osterhout apologized to his coaches and the players for the distraction it caused going into the team's final game of the season.

"I can honestly say it had no impact on the game. It would have been one thing if every defensive lineman that used it had three sacks in the game,'' Brad Osterhout told the Bee.

Watkins added: "We didn't think it was going to give us an unfair advantage, and that's why we didn't think it was a big deal. If we were trying to hide something, we would've never done it out there in the open so everybody could see.''

Wanless said his investigation showed Brad Osterhout was behind the incident.

"There was no collusion, there was no intent to deceive,'' Wanless said. "It was wrong, but it was not a purposeful effort to gain an advantage.

"When you do things, you think there is an advantage. Like if you take a vitamin C pill, you think there is an advantage. But do you think it's an unfair advantage? No. I think there's a distinction.''

It was the third straight weekend of trouble for the Sacramento State's football team.

On Oct. 25, Wanless suspended five Hornet players for violating the team's code of conduct. The next day, Sacramento State beat Eastern Washington 48-41.

Hornets coach John Volek was suspended by the conference for the Montana game for complaining about the officials in his team's 31-30 loss to Montana State on Nov. 2.

Montana athletic director Wayne Hogan said Wanless called Thursday to apologize about the PAMming.

"He was embarrassed by it and said it called into question the integrity of the department,'' Hogan told the Missoulian. "He was not happy and he wanted me to know he was going to take appropriate actions.''

However, Wanless also saw some humor in it.

"You're not going to call it PAM-gate are you?'' he asked Thursday.

Defending national champion Montana rallied from a 21-14 deficit to beat Sacramento State 31-24 and tie an NCAA Division I-AA record with a 24-game winning streak.

Todd Goodrich, a University of Montana photographer, said he first noticed two players spraying each other near the end of the first half of the Nov. 9 game. He said he asked an equipment manager for the Grizzlies if he knew what it was.

"He told me, 'If you see them doing it again, take a picture,' '' Goodrich said.

During the second half, Goodrich said he saw two more players spraying each other with a can of PAM and snapped several photos.

"They were pretty blatant about it,'' Goodrich said. "Right there on the sidelines.''

Montana offensive tackle Derek Decker said he didn't feel the substance on any Sacramento State players during the game.

"I didn't have any idea until Monday when (coach Joe Glenn) came in and talked to us and he had a bottle of PAM that they must have found in the locker room,'' Decker told the Missoulian.

If the officials had noticed the spraying during the game, Sacramento State could have been charged with a time out, and the player would have been required to change his jersey. If more than one player was involved, or the Hornets were out of time-outs, the team could have been given a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty for each additional violation, Fullerton said.

Fullerton said applying cooking spray to a football jersey could make it more difficult for opposing linemen to do their jobs.

"It actually does work, to a certain extent,'' he said. "That's why there's rules against it.''