Every school dreads The Scandal. It can ruin coaches, administrators, teams and even entire universities.

The Scandal can take a school like Northwestern — as it did almost three years ago — drag it across the front pages of national newspapers and give it a black eye that needs years to heal.

On Oct. 24 the Golden Gophers saw that nightmarish possibility become a press release:

“The Division I Committee on Infractions has placed the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, on probation for four years, reduced grants-in-aid, official visits and evaluation opportunities in men’s basketball, and imposed show-cause penalties against three former university employees for various violations of NCAA legislation.”

With those words, the NCAA brought to a crushing conclusion a scandal in which tutors penned dozens of papers, and players bullied teachers into changing grades and took handouts from the head coach.

After one of the worst academic scandals in NCAA history, Minnesota felt the slap of justice’s cold hand. The Gophers were left in a hole so deep, they won’t see light again until 2004 — if they’re lucky.

“The impact has been great on the program,” second-year Minnesota coach Dan Monson said. “It’s crippled the program for years to come, as it probably well should.”

The scandal was as widespread as it was stunning: Former coach Clem Haskins was pushed into NCAA exile, and Minnesota ripped down a Big Ten championship banner from the rafters of Williams Arena. Now, in the first season since the NCAA clamped down on the Gophers, they likely sit just one win from an NIT bid. The Gophers (15-7, 3-6 Big Ten) face Northwestern (8-14, 0-9) at 8:30 p.m. today at Welsh-Ryan Arena, looking for win No. 16.

Minnesota has hit the skids of late, losing four straight. But even the recent troubles haven’t tempered the amazement of so-called experts who figured the Gophers had no chance to finish .500 after the sanctions.

“It’s tough when you’re playing with a depleted team,” NU coach Bill Carmody said. “They’ve surprised everyone — maybe surprised themselves. I think they’ve done just a terrific job this year.”

With the rules violations and last season’s defection of star center Joel Przybilla, Minnesota has dealt with plenty of controversy. And as a result, NCAA sanctions are nothing more than another roadblock.

“Anybody who’s gone through what they’ve gone through the last year and a half has to have a lot of character,” Monson said. “They have to be very resilient, very tough-minded.”

Minnesota was surprisingly revitalized by the announcement of the sanctions. Although the penalties were severe — the Gophers gave up five scholarships over three seasons, lost a big chunk of their recruiting freedom and had to wipe five years of tournament play from their record books — the team didn’t lose its tournament eligibility for the current season.

Monson has said that the eligibility has been a lifeline for Minnesota, which has an obvious goal to shoot for — overcoming the sanctions and making it back to the NCAA tournament.

“They’ve left these players alone to try to go to the NCAA tournament this year and the NIT,” Monson said. “People look at it and say, ‘Well, they get to go to the postseason. They just slapped their hand.’ But we’ve got a lot of recruiting restrictions and depth restrictions.”

The sanctions have been doubly difficult because no one currently involved with the program was at fault. Minnesota’s players and coaches are paying for the mistakes of their predecessors, and have been forced to play with another batch of sanctions never far away.

“That had to be bad for the program, just like when we came in and had that point-shaving thing hanging over our heads,” NU center Tavaras Hardy said. “It’s not a good thing to have something that you couldn’t control hanging over your head. But they’ve recovered well.”

The Gophers sprinted to a 15-3 start out of the gate, including an upset victory over Wisconsin early in the Big Ten season. And even the recent losing streak hasn’t derailed the Gophers.

For a team with few expectations pinned on it, every win is something to savor. Minnesota’s is the rare program that seems to have taken NCAA sanctions and turned them into a positive.

And though the university was rocked by the painful actions of its employees and students, the bad taste left behind — and the empty spot in the rafters — haven’t stopped the Gophers from pressing on.

“I wouldn’t be truthful if I said it wasn’t frustrating,” Monson said. “This isn’t going to happen overnight. There are still going to be setbacks. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of forging through and seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”