The NCAA placed the University of Illinois on a one-year probation last week for violations in its football program. Both the association and the university, however, indicated the Big Ten school handled the situation as well as could be expected.

The offense consisted of a football prospect who later became a student athlete at the university receiving "impermissible" inducements and benefits from a booster, including a job for which the student was considerably overpaid.

"There is absolutely nothing that could have been done to avoid it," Illinois Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations Kent Brown said. "The parties involved had all been given information, in fact the booster involved had been spoken to twice ahead of time before the job was started by the young man."

NCAA Associate Director of Media Relations Kent Barrett agreed Illinois did a good job handling the situation, and cited this as the reason for giving the university a lenient sentence.

"This is an extremely light penalty and that light penalty really reflects the good work the university has done," Barrett said. "What this does is it sends a message to the athletic director [who] did do a good job, but also boosters from around the country."

When asked exactly what sanctions would be taken against the university in their probation period, Barrett equated the probation to "constructive criticism."

"There is no penalty. That is the penalty — you're on probation," Barrett said. "If we didn't have a penalty like this then it would be a free-for-all."

Although Brown said he's been told the penalty was the lightest ever given for a major violation, he said Illinois remains "stunned" by the NCAA's decision to classify the offense as a major (and not a secondary) violation.

"This met the criteria for a secondary violation," he said. "There's no way to avoid [what happened] but once it was detected it was handled swiftly and decisively."

The infraction was actually uncovered by Illinois's own compliance program, which Brown said closely monitors the actions of its athletes, including what cars they are driving and how they were obtained.

"Our current system is what caught this and so the only thing we can do is make our fans and boosters even more aware," Brown said. "Our system worked."

David McDonald, special assistant to the University of Wisconsin chancellor regarding athletics, said UW takes similar measures in its attempt to ensure relationships between its boosters and student-athletes are appropriate.

"The burden on the university is to do everything you can, within reason," McDonald said. "What you do is you continually educate and brief your student-athletes and your boosters."

Another point McDonald said UW tries to convey to boosters and student-athletes is the community surveillance of their activities and the inherent difficulty in getting away with any infractions.

"You also have to remind student-athletes and boosters that in a community the size of Madison, I would imagine Urbana-Champaign is the same way, that you're in a fishbowl and you're very visible," he said. "Your community becomes its own sort of enforcement auxiliary as well."

Brown said the penalty particularly "stings" because Illinois will now be labeled as a recruiting violator, a stigma he said they have diligently attempted to erase over the past years.

"There were two major incidents in the '60s, another major infractions case in the '70s and one in the '80s and one in the early '90s, and that's why we have taken such a hard line over the last 15 years to build a reputation and a culture here that [such incidents] will not be stood for," he said.

The athletic department takes some satisfaction, Brown added, in the fact nobody from the university was involved in the offense, just a booster and a student-athlete.

Both the booster and the student have been subsequently disaffiliated with the university, the booster for a period of at least three years, and the student permanently, as he transferred to Youngstown State University this summer.

"We have a good compliance program here and a great climate to work in," Brown said. "We're [just] going to have to be even more diligent."