The National Collegiate Athletic Association has placed Coastal Carolina University on probation for two years because of violations involving a former head coach of its women’s golf program.

A report released today by the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions says that during the fall of 2007, the coach gave cash to one of the players and provided money to pay a debt to the university for the other, in violation of NCAA rules regarding financial aid. The report does not identify the coach by name, but criticizes his actions as “unethical conduct.” That finding, it says, results “from his willful and blatant nature of the violations he committed and refusal to cooperate fully with the investigation.”

The university self-reported the violations, the report says, and took corrective actions, including requesting the coach’s resignation.

The NCAA also imposed penalties on the former coach, including restrictions on recruiting activities over the next three years, and it required any institution that employs him during that period to report to the infractions committee on how it is monitoring his compliance. —Charles Huckabee