At a news conference Wednesday night, Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame’s athletic director, said Te’o received a phone call in early December from a number that he thought to be Kekua’s. The voice on the phone was one he had believed to be hers, Swarbrick said, and the person was telling Te’o that she was not dead. Te’o and his family told the university about the situation on Dec. 26, Swarbrick said, at which point Notre Dame asked an independent investigative company to look into the matter.

Much remains unclear about whether Te’o was duped or whether he somehow perpetrated the fictitious story of having a girlfriend who died in September, during the season. It was clear, however, that both Te’o and the university were well aware of the situation during the onslaught of news media coverage during the lead-up to the Bowl Championship Series title game on Jan. 7. Neither corrected the record until the Deadspin article was published Wednesday.

Swarbrick said it was his understanding that, until the Deadspin article, Te’o and his family planned to make a public statement about the situation next week. Te’o was Notre Dame’s standout player, finishing second in the Heisman Trophy balloting and leading the Irish to an unexpected berth in the national title game. On Jan. 3, four days before the B.C.S. game, Te’o was asked about how the commotion and excitement of the football season helped him cope with the deaths of his girlfriend and his grandmother. “I think whenever you’re in football, it takes your mind off a lot of things,” he said, not mentioning the girlfriend.

Swarbrick said there was no attempt to conceal the story.

“This story was coming out,” he said. “There was too much online chatter about it.”