The National Collegiate Athletic Association has placed Texas Southern University on four years’ probation for violations of eligibility requirements and unethical conduct, among other infractions, in its softball and men’s and women’s tennis programs.

Other penalties — both self-imposed by the university and levied by the NCAA — include a suspension of the men’s and women’s tennis programs from all competition over several semesters in 2007 and 2008, a reduction in scholarships for the tennis teams, and the forfeiture of softball victories in which any ineligible athletes played.

According to a report released this afternoon by the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions, a former Texas Southern tennis coach lured international students to the university on the promise of scholarships, then cobbled together an unethical package of more than $19,000 for 22 athletes that left several of the students destitute once the money ran out.

The former softball coach let an ineligible athlete play in 47 practices and nine games, the report says. In some of those games, the athlete competed under the name of an injured player who was still eligible but had left the team. The ineligible player also received free textbooks and almost $1,500 in benefits, the report says.

Because of the university’s lack of oversight, the violations came to light by “an anonymous source and a disillusioned tennis student-athlete,” according to the NCAA’s news release describing the penalties. —Kate Moser