Baylor still plans to field a men's basketball team for the 2003-04 season but might be reduced to playing with only a handful of scholarship athletes.

Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said Saturday that Baylor president Robert Sloan told the conference that Baylor will field a team for the upcoming season. Baylor spokesman Scott Stricklin seconded that, saying that there have been no discussions about abandoning this season.

Several Baylor players have expressed interest in transferring and reports in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Saturday about the growing scandal in Waco, Texas, could lead to even more player departures. This would make dressing a team, let alone a competitive one, even more difficult.

"There may be only six or seven guys and this team won't have any depth, but they will likely have a team,'' Stricklin said.

The Star-Telegram reported that Bliss directed players to lie to Baylor investigators and imply that the late Patrick Dennehy covered his tuition through drug dealing. Bliss' directives were taped July 30-Aug. 1 by assistant coach Abar Rouse with a concealed recorder. When he resigned on Aug. 8, Bliss admitted that he orchestrated the tuition payments for Dennehy, a redshirt transfer from New Mexico, and seldom-used freshman Corey Herring, who were non-scholarship players last season.

Baylor aided in what could become a mass exodus when it sent a blanket waiver request Friday to the NCAA that would allow its players to transfer without sitting out the usual one-year in-residence requirement. Preseason Wooden All-American junior Lawrence Roberts is visiting Mississippi State this weekend and is off to Arizona next week. Returning junior Kenny Taylor, junior John Lucas III and incoming freshman Tyrone Nelson have asked for their releases and are expected to leave.

Baylor classes start Aug. 25 and the players might have to transfer without knowing whether they will receive the waiver to play immediately at a new school. But the unprecedented events could move the NCAA to show leniency.

Meanwhile, a representative of junior college transfer Harvey Thomas was calling around Friday to find a school with an open scholarship. Thomas, who previously indicated he would stay put, will probably have the hardest time of any Baylor player finding a taker. His name has been dragged continuously into the investigation. The Star-Telegram reports that Bliss told Rouse on the tape that Thomas would be willing to lie to investigators, noting, "Harvey will do anything, and the reason is because we did it for Harvey.''

During the time Dennehy's whereabouts were unknown, family members and friends said someone named "Harvey" was threatening Dennehy. Bliss denied throughout the process that Thomas was involved in the investigation and said that Thomas had passed a lie detector test. Anthony Poole, Thomas' mentor in their hometown of Fredericksburg, Va., also said Thomas has passed the test and reiterated that Thomas had nothing to do with Dennehy's disappearance. But the innuendo that has followed Thomas, who bounced from Georgetown to two junior colleges to Baylor, will likely hurt his chances of landing at a new school.

If Thomas joins the other four players who appear to be departing, Baylor would be left with only seven scholarship players, though that number could dwindle further. The remaining players -- seniors Matt Sayman, R.T. Guinn and Terrance Thomas, junior Ellis Kidd Jr., sophomores Tommy Swanson and Herring, and freshman Carl Marshall -- could leave as well.

But Sayman's father, Lloyd, said Saturday his son wouldn't leave Baylor. He said his son made a commitment to play this season, "even if he was the only scholarship player on the team.'' He said he was assured the university would field a team even if his son was the only player left. But, he said, if the school canceled the season, his son would have to redshirt the year and play the following season as a fifth-year senior.

"But I still plan on going to Hawaii,'' Lloyd Sayman said, referring to a tournament on Baylor's non-conference schedule.

Canceling the season would cause a host of scheduling and contractual problems. The school has contracts to honor with television and radio affiliates as well as for non-conference home and road games. Weiberg said the conference is waiting for Baylor to hire a coach, then will see who stays on the roster and judge what kind of team Baylor could put forth to compete.

"Regardless of how bad it gets, not playing would be an ultimate surrender by the university and it's something I don't see them making,'' said Stricklin, who is leaving next week to be an assistant athletic director at Kentucky.

Baylor could be put in a situation similar to the 1986-87 Maryland team. Following the tragic death of Len Bias and the departure of then head coach Lefty Driesell, the Terrapins scrambled to put together a team and didn't play until Dec. 27. They finished winless (0-14) in the ACC, as Baylor could do in the Big 12. Recruiting in November will probably be a lost cause, regardless of who the new head coach is. Sam Houston State's Bob Marlin, who has the backing of Baylor graduates and Houston Rockets execs Carroll Dawson and Dennis Lindsey, remains interested in the position along with Samford's Jimmy Tillette and Indiana assistant coach John Treloar. Baylor's plan is to start interviewing candidates within a week to 10 days.

Rouse met with Baylor and NCAA investigators Friday and the revelations from his taped conversations could lead to Bliss being sanctioned by the NCAA for unethical conduct and subject to a "show-cause penalty.''

The show-cause penalty requires any NCAA institution that employs or seeks to employ the individual to explain to the committee on infractions why it would hire this person. For example, when Todd Bozeman was ousted as Cal coach in 1996 for paying former Bear Jelani Gardner, he was given an eight-year show- cause penalty; he's still serving that sentence and has not found another college job.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.