"Paul Donahoe and Kenny Jordan have been permanently dismissed from our wrestling program," Nebraska wrestling coach Mark Manning said in a statement released Tuesday. "The history of behavior of these men, including the current matter, does not reflect the standard of excellence we aspire to on and off the mat."
Manning, who did not return a phone call from ABCNews.com seeking additional comment, apologized in his statement for "any embarrassment" that might have been caused for the university's athletic department. He also didn't elaborate on the part of his statement that referred to the "history of behavior of these men."
Voice mail messages left by ABCNews.com for Donahoe and Jordan were not returned.
According to the Nebraska student-athlete handbook, Cornhusker athletes are required to "Always present a positive image; don't do anything to embarrass yourself, the team, your family or the University."
For now, it remains unclear whether Donahoe and Jordan would be eligible to wrestle under NCAA policies. The organizing body for college athletics would not comment on the specifics of the case but sent ABCNews.com an NCAA bylaw that could apply. Student-athletes can lose eligibility if they receive payment for the use of their photograph to "advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service."
Fratmentv.com owner John Marsh told ABCNews.com that the images of Donahoe and Jordan have been pulled from his Web site. The Scarlet Project, a blog devoted to reporting scandals at the University of Nebraska, apparently brought the issue to the university's attention after posting an item, complete with a sampling of the photos, on its Web site Aug. 9. The photos of the wrestlers have been pulled from that site as well, but have since been posted on other pornography and gay-themed Web sites.
Marsh said that both wrestlers have expressed their desire to wrestle collegiately again. "We don't want to mess with the NCAA," Marsh said, "and we're horrified that their eligibility is even questioned."
He is also horrified that their names, which were replaced with aliases on the gay Web site, have been circulated internationally. A membership to his Web site costs $24.95 a month.
Marsh contends that their NCAA eligibility should not be stripped because the two athletes, whom he described as models, were paid for photo spreads that appeared on his Web site, not photos promoting his product. "I think these guys are going to be eligible, and I think another school is going to love to have them," he said.
Donahoe and Jordan, Marsh said, are humiliated that family and friends have been exposed to the scandal and that their names are being associated with the gay site. "Virtually all of the guys we shoot are straight, including Mr. Donahoe and Mr. Jordan," Marsh said. "The reason they call it gay porn is because the primary audience is gay men."
Marsh would not reveal how much each of the athletes was paid for the poses or whether the pair approached him or he found them. Marsh did say that he has never explicitly gone looking for models on university athletic rosters.
Marsh said the controversy involving the wrestlers underscores a generational gap in the way naked photographs are perceived. "The younger generations, the X-Gen, the Y-Gen, millenials, they don't have a stigma about it," he said. "This is the MySpace generation."
But he also acknowledged the consequences that come with selling, or simply posting, nude or pornographic photos online -- consequences sometimes lost until it's too late.
"They would have never done this stuff if they would have believed this would happen," Marsh said.
