LEXINGTON, KY. ? Kentucky was placed on three years’ probation by the NCAA on Thursday for football recruiting violations.

The Wildcats, cited by the NCAA for more than three dozen recruiting violations, were banned from a bowl game next season and must forfeit 19 scholarships over the next three years.

“This is an embarrassment to the university, it’s an embarrassment to our fans and it’s an embarrassment to the athletic department,” Kentucky athletics director Larry Ivy said.

In a 41-page report, the NCAA said it was “troubled by the widespread nature of the undetected violations in time, frequency and the number of individuals who would have some knowledge that the activities were improper and failed to report them to the proper authorities.”

Kentucky can sign only 16 of a possible 25 recruits for next season, 18 the following season and 22 in 2004. During the probation, the Wildcats can only have a total of 80 players on scholarship five under the 85-player limit.

Former recruiting coordinator Claude Bassett was banned from working at an NCAA school for the next eight years.

The bowl ban was the first the NCAA’s committee on infractions has levied against a Div. I program since Miami seven years ago. UK’s violations were committed from 1998 to 2000 under Hal Mumme, who resigned last February.