FAYETTEVILLE — Jeff Long said he was fully briefed on Arkansas’ pending NCAA infractions case involving the track and field program before he accepted the job as the Razorbacks’ athletic director Tuesday.

Arkansas officials expect to hear within the next two to four weeks whether the NCAA will impose additional sanctions against the track and field program after a contingent of UA officials appeared before the Infractions Committee on April 11 in Indianapolis.

“I’m very aware of that situation, and it had no impact on my decision,” said Long, who is coming to Arkansas after being Pittsburgh’s athletic director since May 2003. “Chancellor [John ] White shared those things with me right off the bat, and we had a very good conversation about compliance.

“ Things can happen in an athletic program without the knowledge of the administrators or even the coaches on the staff, but it’s how we respond to those infractions once we become aware of them that’s important.

ADVERTISEMENT

“ That’s the way we should be judged, and from my understanding Arkansas has handled it in exactly the right way and will come through it very well.”

The infractions Arkansas has admitted were committed in 2003 by former assistant track coach Lance Brauman, according to UA’s self-report sent to the NCAA, and include Brauman providing or arranging for transportation, tutoring and housing for sprinter Tyson Gay before he was academically eligible.

Gay, a transfer from Barton County (Kan. ) Community College where he also was coached by Brauman, was a two-time NCAA champion for the Razorbacks and earned seven All-America honors in 2004 and 2005. He has gone on to become one of the top professional sprinters in the world, and earlier this summer he won the 100 and 200 meters at the USA and world championships.

Self-imposed sanctions by Arkansas include losing three scholarships for the track and field team for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic years; prohibiting the recruitment of junior-college athletes for the track and field team for the 2006-2007, 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 academic years; and requesting and receiving Brauman’s resignation and disassociating him permanently from the program.

“Chancellor White knows that compliance is extremely important to me,” Long said. “I have a reputation, I believe, for integrity.

“ So I looked him in the eye and said, ‘If you’re looking for someone who is going to look the other way when something bad happens or will try to sweep something under the rug, you have the wrong man.’ And he looked at me and said, ‘We have the absolute right man.’”