In the meantime, Tulane enlisted a law firm from outside the New Orleans area to conduct an in-house investigation. During the probe, head coach Ned Fowler and two assistants admitted to paying players. On April 4, president Eamon Kelly announced that he would recommend the permanent disbanding of the basketball program in order to "demonstrate unambiguously this academic community's intolerance of the violations and actions we have uncovered." Soon afterward, Fowler and his staff handed in their resignations. By the end of the month, Tulane athletic director Hindman Wall resigned, and the school was expelled from the Metro Conference as a result. According to "Sports Illustrated", the scandal, combined with reports of academic impropriety, enraged the faculty to the point that several members wanted to drop intercollegiate athletics altogether. They were only appeased when Kelly proposed to shut down the basketball program.