Florida Escapes NCAA’s ‘Death Penalty’ : Colleges: The Gators’ football and basketball programs get probation. Penalties are relatively light.

The University of Florida football and basketball programs were placed on two years’ probation by the NCAA today but escaped the “death penalty” that could have shut down both sports for two years.

It marked the second time in six years the NCAA had imposed sanctions on the Gators, but this case--centered on infractions occurring under former football Coach Galen Hall and former basketball Coach Norm Sloan--seemed nowhere near as severe as the other.

Unlike 1984, when Florida football was slapped with two years’ probation, lost scholarships and was banned from appearing in postseason games and on live television, the penalties this time were relatively light.

The NCAA banned the football team from appearing in a bowl game after this season, but took no more action against that sport. The basketball program will lose three scholarships over two years and must return a portion of the revenue it earned from the 1988 NCAA tournament because of the use of an ineligible athlete.

The Gators will be permitted 13 scholarships in 1991-92, two fewer than the maximum, and 14 scholarships in 1992-93. The NCAA also cited Sloan and Hall, both fired last year, for unethical conduct.

Although the school avoided the “death penalty,” university President John Lombardi took exception to the postseason ban on this year’s football team, which is 2-0 and ranked No. 19.

“We cannot accept as appropriate the punishment of the innocent for the sins of a prior generation,” Lombardi said. He described the ban as “a particularly difficult blow to accept.”

The school can appeal the sanctions, or ask that the ban against the football team be delayed.

The school had argued in a 1,100-page response to the NCAA charges that swift corrective action taken when infractions were discovered.

Hall, now a graduate assistant coach at Penn State, was asked to step down in the middle of last season after admitting he provided improper salary supplements to two assistant coaches. The NCAA also charged that he assisted a former player in paying child support, but Hall denied the allegation.

Sloan, who is coaching a professional team in Greece, has denied any knowledge that he broke NCAA rules, including an allegation that he provided an airline ticket for ex-Gators star Vernon Maxwell to attend a summer basketball camp.