An official of the American Council on Education has been accused of failing to report a rules violation involving the men's basketball team at California State University at Fresno in 1995 when he was an administrator there, according to The Fresno Bee.

In a private letter that was sent to the university last July but that the newspaper recently obtained, the National Collegiate Athletic Association stated that Benjamin F. Quillian -- who now serves as senior vice president of business and operations at ACE -- was one of two people who should have notified the association that the basketball players had received free meals from a local Japanese restaurant, a violation of NCAA rules.

Mr. Quillian, who was vice president for administration and interim athletics director at Fresno State in 1995, sent a memorandum in April 1997 to the university's athletics director at the time, Al Bohl, stating that the restaurant's owner had admitted providing free meals to the athletes, the newspaper reported. The restaurateur told the Bee that he had given several thousand dollars worth of meals to student athletes from 1993 to 2000, even though he knew that it was against NCAA rules.

However, the newspaper reported that, according to the NCAA's letter to the university, neither Mr. Quillian nor Mr. Bohl had informed the NCAA of the meals. That put both men in violation of NCAA rules, the association wrote.

Mr. Quillian has refused to comment, saying that he was asked by Fresno State's lawyer not to discuss the matter until after a hearing on Saturday.