Lincoln U. receives probation

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Lincoln University's athletic teams have been put on probation for four years by the NCAA because of systemwide violations that resulted from trying to revive the Blue Tigers' football program.

Officials at the Jefferson City school, which reported the infractions to the NCAA in 2002, blamed an influx of athletes in the late 1990s -- when the football program was re-instituted.

"The compliance coordinator mistakenly applied eligibility rules and was unable to keep track of the large influx of student-athletes, in part due to the institution's failure to ensure that he was adequately trained," the NCAA said in its report.

Because of that, the organization said, a number of ineligible athletes were allowed to participate in football, men's basketball, women's cross country, women's track and field, and men's golf.

The football team is banned from postseason play next year and must forfeit all of the games it played in 2001, when it went 4-5.

Lincoln also will forfeit all of the men's basketball games played during 2002-03, when the team went 13-13.