The National Collegiate Athletic Association has placed the University of New Mexico on three years’ probation after an investigation of academic fraud involving two former assistant football coaches.

In 2004 the coaches arranged for three academically ineligible recruits to enroll in correspondence courses and receive credit without doing any work, according to a report released this afternoon by the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions. One of the coaches knew an instructor, then employed at Fresno Pacific University, who led the courses, the report says.

In addition to probation, other penalties — both exacted by the NCAA and self-imposed by the university — include fewer football scholarships during the probationary period and fewer coaches recruiting off-campus.

The committee’s report also says the coaches attempted to mislead investigators. One coach said he had spoken to the course instructor only twice a year. Telephone records showed he had called her 82 times in a two-year period.

This is the University of New Mexico’s third major NCAA infractions case. —Kate Moser