LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The University of Kentucky has banned a fan from any involvement with the school's athletic program for 27 years for unapproved contact with potential football recruits.

Brian Poe, 34, was banned for contacting potential Wildcats football recruits during the spring of 2002, the university said.

Poe, who runs a Kentucky fan Web site, cannot purchase season tickets. Also, coaches, players, staff members or potential recruits can't have contact with Poe.

Poe was originally banned by Kentucky for two years after the university said he had inappropriately interviewed high school recruits.

Kentucky compliance director Sandy Bell contacted the NCAA after finding out about Poe's initial interviews with recruits. She was told the school was responsible for Poe's actions and that the university had to report those violations.

Bell was told by another booster that Poe was circulating e-mails asking for help in recruiting athletes. The school talked with NCAA officials and an additional 25 years was added.

The NCAA says that fan Web sites aren't considered media outlets, and that the school might be accountable if a representative contacts a recruit. Such contact might be an NCAA violation.

"Because he was not a media entity, he was a representative of our athletics interests," Bell said Thursday. "The NCAA wouldn't want a booster of any institution to just open a Web site and start interviewing recruits."

Kentucky is serving a three-year probation for recruiting violations committed during the tenure of former football coach Hal Mumme, which, Poe contends, is one reason the penalty was so extreme.

"It's exceedingly long, but with [Kentucky] being on probation, they probably felt they had to make a statement," Poe was quoted as saying by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Attempts to reach Poe on Thursday were unsuccessful. A man who answered the phone at Big Blue Nation Media, the Lexington company that produces the Kentucky fan Web site, said Poe no longer worked for the company, but the man declined to identify himself.

Poe is the sixth person to be banned by Kentucky: Joe Brett Langley, who was banned three years; and Brian McCarty, Gary McKee, and Bud Willis, who were given five years each. Lexington horseman Tom Gentry received a lifetime ban from NCAA-related problems in the 1970s.