Past Missouri Players Granted Immunity : Basketball: To get former teammates to testify against the No. 1 team for rules violations, the NCAA has agreed that nothing they say will be held against them.

Two former Missouri players say they have been given grants of limited immunity to testify against the country’s No. 1-ranked basketball team for alleged rules violations, according to a published report.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said in today’s editions that P. J. Mays and Daniel Lyton, both of whom left the Missouri program during their freshman years--Mays in 1988, Lyton last September--have agreed to testify under the limited immunity conditions.

The players say they also are free to enroll at Division I programs next year without loss of eligibility.

“They said something to the effect that just so long as I tell the truth, I can’t be harmed,” said Mays, who now attends a junior college in Anderson, S.C. “But if they go through another source and find out something different, it can be held against me.”

David Berst, the NCAA’s assistant executive director for enforcement, declined to confirm whether limited immunity had been granted or to discuss specifics of the Missouri case.

But speaking in general terms, he said the use of limited immunity has become a common tool in cases involving significant extra benefits.

“It has to be a situation where we think a student-athlete has knowledge that would help us all understand what the real problem is at a particular school,” Berst said. “Or a situation where we can’t get it except through the student-athlete.”

The deals must be approved by the chairman of the NCAA Committee on Infractions, a seven-member group which serves as the jury and hands out sanctions. University officials are routinely left in the dark in cases involving immunity.

“I have not heard that word used,” Missouri Athletic Director Dick Tamburo said. “I wouldn’t have to know about it. But somewhere along the line, I would hope I’d get a glimpse of it or something.”