NCAA Places U. of San Francisco on Probation

Athletes at the University of San Francisco spent thousands of dollars designated for textbooks on other expenditures, one of several violations that led the National Collegiate Athletic Association to place the university on two years' probation Thursday. The case, which was adjudicated through the NCAA's summary disposition process, also involved 535 long-distance phone calls that athletes were inappropriately allowed to make free, and a finding that the university failed to monitor its sports program adequately. USF agreed to donate $28,000 -- about double the value of the violations -- to charity as part of its penalty.