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A University of California professor who gave two football players credit for course work they didn’t do is stepping down from a prestigious position overseeing outreach for the nine-campus system. 

Alex Saragoza, who had served as vice president of educational outreach for the UC system for 10 months, said in his resignation letter released Tuesday that he was concerned his efforts “have been compromised by recent outside events.” 

Saragoza previously was suspended for the fall 2001 semester from his other job as a UC Berkeley ethnic studies professor. He is resigning effective June 30 as vice president of outreach, which involved recruiting and preparing disadvantaged students for UC schools. 

UC Irvine Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Manuel N. Gomez has been appointed Saragoza’s interim replacement. 

Documents released earlier after a public records requests by the San Francisco Chronicle showed that Saragoza retroactively enrolled football players Michael Ainsworth and Ronnie Davenport in spring 1999 classes to allow them to remain eligible to play football during the 1999 season. 

A report by an investigator hired by the university said Saragoza could not produce evidence showing the students did the work. 

Cal is recommending that its athletic program be put on probation for a year and the football team lose four scholarships. The team would also have to forfeit its September 1999 win against Arizona State because of the contributions of Ainsworth and Davenport. The Pacific-10 athletic conference will make a disciplinary recommendation to the NCAA in June. 

The investigation found no one on Cal’s coaching or athletic program staff was involved. 

UC President Richard C. Atkinson said in a statement that Saragoza’s resignation was necessary but something he accepted “with great personal regret.”