LOS ANGELES — The Southern California athletic program was placed on NCAA probation until 2003 and lost 2 1/2 scholarships because tutors wrote papers for three athletes.
The NCAA and USC refused Thursday to identify the athletes — two football players and a woman diver. The diver was expelled in 1997, immediately after academic fraud was uncovered.
Two tutors were fired and a third quit.
The probation covers the entire athletic department. Two football scholarships for the 2002-03 academic year were cut and half a scholarship for the women's swimming and diving team was canceled. The probation will have no effect on postseason football bowl game appearances.
USC said it has changed its athlete tutor program to prohibit more fraud.
"Student Athlete Academic Services has been completely reorganized, the staff has been significantly expanded and the training responsibility for tutors has been transferred to the USC Learning Center," Mike Diamond, university executive vice provost, said Thursday.
USC initiated the investigation and found one violation each in 1996-98, said Jack Friedenthal, NCAA Infractions Committee chairman.
One football player got an A- in political science in 1996 after submitting a tutor-written paper. The second football player got a C in a religion course in 1998 after a fraudulent paper was submitted.
The diver turned in a rough draft for a 1997 writing class handwritten by her tutor, then submitted the final paper in her own handwriting. When the school learned the diver committed academic fraud, her grade was changed to F and she was expelled.
The NCAA said it had no evidence that coaches, assistant coaches or tutor directors asked the athletes or tutors to take part in the deception.
"The athletes were very forthcoming," Friedenthal said. "We don't have any information to indicate that the coaches inadvertently or deliberately had specific knowledge that anything improper was going on."
The National Collegiate Athletic Association and the university refused to release the names of the tutors involved.
Two professors, whose names were not disclosed, refused to change the grades for the football players, and they remained at the university. It was not immediately known whether they were allowed to remain on the team. The school also wouldn't say if the students are still enrolled.
When the NCAA asked the professors involved why they didn't change the grades and expel the football players, they were told it was "a matter of academic freedom," Friedenthal said.
USC's football program was placed on NCAA probation in 1980 because of a junior college transcript scandal that affected Southern Cal and five other Pacific 10 Conference schools. The school was punished again in 1982-83 for charges that included improper ticket sales. That penalty cost USC money by keeping the Trojans out of bowl games and off television for two years.