"I share everybody's view that it has to happen. And we are certainly encouraging it to happen," Swarbrick said in a podcast. "We think it's important and we would like to see it happen sooner rather than later."

Two people interviewed by Outside the Lines said a cousin was duped by Tuiasosopo with a similar online hoax in which he used a woman with the same name, Lennay Kekua. Then this fall, when J.R. Vaosa of Torrance, Calif., saw stories about Te'o and the girlfriend, whom he said had died of leukemia, he became suspicious because it sounded similar to the cousin's situation.

"When I found out about the Samoan football player (and) his girlfriend, his Grandma died the same day, I was like, 'Whoa this is crazy,' I feel so bad for him, so I just looked him up," Vaosa told Outside the Lines. "I found out his girlfriend's name was Lennay Kekua. And right when I read the name Lennay Kekua, I immediately thought of Ronaiah. Then I thought of my cousin -- that this has to be the same person."

Swarbrick said Te'o and his parents informed Notre Dame of the hoax on Dec. 26, several weeks after Te'o finished as the runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting to Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.