SDSU to Investigate Allegations

San Diego State is investigating allegations that paperwork was fraudulently filed at a junior college so that three football players could receive academic credit and maintain their eligibility to play for the Aztecs.

Derrick Williams, Daryl Crawford and Michael Misch told The San Diego Union-Tribune that they did not do the work required to obtain credits in Mesa College work experience courses in the summers of 1989 and 1990. The credits were transferred to SDSU.

The newspaper on Friday cited Mesa College documents that record credits for work that Williams and Crawford said they never did. To be eligible under NCAA guidelines, student athletes must pass 24 semester-units per year.

Williams said SDSU coach Al Luginbill told him to take the work experience course at Mesa. Luginbill denied that. Luginbill said he knows “nothing about a football player who did not do the work.”

Athletic Director Fred Miller said he has reported the allegations to university president Thomas Day. Miller said an investigation is under way and that Jim Malik, the school’s faculty athletic representative, will head the probe.

Transfer of credits based on fraudulent documentation would violate NCAA rules. If anyone from SDSU was involved, the violation could lead to penalties against the athletic program.

A similar incident led to a one-year probation of SDSU’s basketball program by the NCAA in 1984. The most serious allegation was that a basketball player received credit for work he never did in a summer course at San Diego City College.