STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) Georgia Southern was put on two years' probation and the football team will lose two scholarships next season after the NCAA ruled three football players received improper academic assistance. The school escaped a postseason ban.
The football program will also face a 10 percent reduction in official visits and football evaluations for 2016-17. The names of the two former staff members cited and football players were not released Thursday by the NCAA or Georgia Southern.
The school must vacate any victories in which the players participated. But Greg Sankey, chairman of the infractions and commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, said those games had yet to be determined. Georgia Southern, an FBS school in Statesboro, will make that announcement.
Sankey said the school self-imposed a $5,000 fine. He added that no member of the coaching staff was subject to penalties.
In the first violation, which occurred in fall 2013, a former assistant compliance director gave a flash drive to a player who later enrolled in a course that allowed him to submit an assignment as his own work.
''The former assistant director not only violated the NCAA's ethical conduct rule when she provided,'' Sankey said. ''She also failed to cooperate with the NCAA's investigation.''
The second violation occurred in the fall 2014. Sankey said a former assistant director of student services drafted and submitted 10 extra-credit assignments on behalf of two football players.
''She obtained the student-athletes' log-in and passwords and submitted those assignments without the student-athletes' knowledge,'' Sankey said.
Jeff Monken was Georgia Southern's coach in 2013 and Willie Fritz in 2014. Fritz left for Tulane after last season and was replaced by Tyson Summers.
The NCAA notified Georgia Southern of its investigation on Aug. 3, 2015.
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