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Lois B. DeFleur, president of the university, announced the news on the school's Web site and also outlined several other steps aimed at addressing the current crisis.

Six basketball players have been kicked off the team in the past week, including point guard Emanuel "Tiki" Mayben, who was arraigned last Thursday on cocaine distribution charges, and former Rutgers guard Corey Chandler, who was dismissed from the Big East program last month. The Bearcats only have seven scholarship players for the upcoming season.

DeFleur also formally directed head coach Kevin Broadus to provide her with a recruitment and supervision plan for Binghamton's basketball program.

"I expect that this plan will specify the criteria, processes and practices that will reflect the University's academic and behavioral standards," she said in a statement.

DeFleur also announced that an "external consultant" would "audit our athletic program to ensure that we are following America East and NCAA policies and procedures, and that we are providing the best possible experiences for our student-athletes."

Sally Dear, a dismissed Binghamton lecturer, told The New York Times that the school's basketball players received preferential treatment in classes, including independent studies when they were in jeopardy of failing classes.

Broadus signed a contract extension in June through the 2013-14 season, following the team's first conference championship and NCAA tournament berth. The Bearcats went 23-9 last season and won both the America East regular season and tournament titles. They were 13-3 in league play and won a school-record 11 straight games before losing to Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Mayben's arrest was the third legal problem for a player since Broadus, a former Georgetown assistant with a reputation for recruiting players from a diploma mill in Philadelphia, became coach in 2007. Mayben has pleaded not guilty to selling cocaine twice on June 29 and to possessing 3.4 grams of the drug when he was arrested on a sealed indictment last week.

Former player Miladin Kovacevic, who wasn't recruited by Broadus, faces prosecution in his native Serbia on charges that he beat a classmate into a coma during a May 2008 barroom brawl.

He fled New York for home, creating tensions between the U.S. and Serbia that were resolved when Serbia agreed to pay $900,000 to the victim's family and prosecute Kovacevic. Malik Alvin, one of the players released last week, was a transfer student brought in by Broadus. He was charged with stealing condoms from a Wal-Mart in November.

Binghamton is part of the State University of New York system, which is led by chancellor Nancy Zimpher, who is known to take a hard line on problems within athletic programs. Zimpher was the president of the University of Cincinnati when men's basketball coach Bob Huggins was pressured to resign in 2005 following the program's history of low graduation rates, suspensions and arrests of Huggins' players. Huggins was also convicted of drunken driving in 2004.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.