That sum represents cash payments to Bond Schoeneck, a Kansas City, Mo., law firm hired by the university to conduct the internal probe, The Detroit News reported in yesterday's editions.
The billings cover the 16 months between December 1994, when ex-Spartan Roosevelt Wagner's allegations of wrongdoing became public, through March of this year. Michigan State officials said they did not know why they haven't received any bills from Bond Schoeneck since then.
The payments were made from the athletic department's emergency fund, Athletic Director Merritt Norvell said. He told the News on Monday that he didn't know how much money was in the emergency fund, but that it was not ''dangerously depleted.''
The payments nevertheless represent nearly half of the athletic department's 1995 profit of about $1.4 million, Norvell said.
''If I had it, I could better support my athletes, coaches and facilities and get a lot farther toward the goals we're trying to accomplish,'' he said.
Several attorneys from Bond Schoeneck joined Michigan State officials at a June 1 hearing before the NCAA's Committee on Infractions. The committee is expected to announce soon whether penalties already imposed by university President M. Peter McPherson were sufficient or if Michigan State should be punished further.
McPherson led the school's defense at that hearing.
He hoped to head off tougher NCAA sanctions in April by voluntarily forfeiting all five of the Spartans' 1994 football victories because of rules violations.
The NCAA, in a letter of inquiry, cited claims that an academic adviser pressured faculty to change players' grades and urged a student to feign mental illness to get an extension for course work, and that a Florida man gave gifts to recruits.
McPherson has denied other allegations, including a claim that the university demonstrated a lack of institutional control and monitoring between the 1989-90 and 1994-95 school years.