Quote:CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Eastern Illinois University disbanded its wrestling program Thursday, citing the team's poor academic performance.

The team's academic progress over the past three school years was the poorest among the school's 22 men's and women's sports, and among the lowest 10 percent of all Division I wrestling programs in the country, according to a recent NCAA report on academics at member schools. The NCAA penalized the school, taking away part of a scholarship.

"Unfortunately, it was deficient last year, it was deficient this year, we'll probably be cited again next year," Athletic Director Rich McDuffie said.

"How it got that way, that's a good question," he said. "We decided that we didn't want to point fingers or assign blame."

McDuffie said money didn't play a role in the decision.

Eastern Illinois spent $146,000 on wrestling in the school year that just ended. Its sports budget is $8.4 million.

The school has 18 wrestlers and two more who planned to start school next fall, sports information director Rich Moser said.

It wasn't immediately clear how many have scholarships, but the school will honor all of them, according to a news release.

Coach Ralph McCausland, who has been at the school for more than 20 years, will be reassigned to another job, which has yet to be determined, McDuffie said.

McCausland said Thursday afternoon that he was calling wrestlers to let them know. School is not in session, he said, and they are not on campus.

He declined further comment.

"I need time to decompress," he said.