NCAA infractions committee hears Lobo football case

4/18/2008 9:02 PM

By TIM KORTE
AP Sports Writer

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -New Mexico administrators presented their case to the NCAA infractions committee during a full-day hearing Friday in an academic fraud investigation involving two former assistant football coaches.

The panel also heard from Lenny Rodriguez and Grady Stretz, the former assistants who are accused of improperly helping one New Mexico player and four recruits obtain fraudulent academic credits through correspondence courses at Fresno Pacific University.

Members of the infractions committee advised the parties not to publicly discuss details of the meeting, but New Mexico athletic director Paul Krebs characterized it as productive.

``It was a very fair hearing,'' he said in a brief telephone interview from Indianapolis. ``A lot of information was disclosed by all sides and there was a full vetting of the issues. Now we await the outcome.''

The committee is expected to issue its findings in six to eight weeks.

Head coach Rocky Long, who attended with Krebs and three university administrators, is not accused of any wrongdoing.

New Mexico faces three rules violations in the case. No current players are tied to the investigation, which dates from the spring of 2004 and fall of 2005, and only two of the five played for the Lobos.

New Mexico self-imposed penalties on the three counts, including two years' probation, the reduction of two scholarships for next season and cutting the number of coaches who can make off-campus visits over the next two seasons.

The NCAA dropped a fourth charge.

Rodriguez, who coached at New Mexico from 1998-2006, is now an assistant at Mount San Antonio College in suburban Los Angeles. Stretz, an assistant at New Mexico from 1998-2005, coaches Arizona State's defensive line.