Story highlights Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of children

Curley and Schultz are likely be given a sentence ranging from probation to nine months in jail

(CNN) Two former Penn State officials who were charged with child endangerment in the Jerry Sandusky scandal have pleaded guilty.

One week before they were set to go to trial on three felony charges, former athletic director Tim Curley and former university vice president Gary Schultz pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children.

In exchange, the felony charges were dropped. Curley and Schultz could face up to five years in jail when sentenced, though guidelines show that they will likely be given a sentence ranging from probation to nine months in jail.

Sandusky, the disgraced former defensive coordinator at Penn State, was convicted and sent to prison nearly five years ago for molesting 10 boys, many of them on Penn State's campus.

Two of those cases heavily involved Curley, Schultz, and then-university-president Graham Spanier. According to emails recovered in an internal investigation and first reported in 2012, those cases, one in 1998 and one in 2001, were discussed among the three administrators in February 2001.

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