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Embargoed Until

3 p.m. Eastern Time Friday, February 25, 2011

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Stacey Osburn
Associate Director of Public and Media Relations
317/917-6117

INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions has penalized the University of California, Berkeley for violations in its men's basketball program.

This case was narrow in scope and centered on 365 impermissible recruiting phone calls, which were detected and reported by the university. Penalties include two years probation and recruiting restrictions for phone calls, official visits and off-campus contacts.

The violations in this case began shortly after the new men’s basketball staff was hired. The committee noted that the university’s compliance office acted quickly in educating the newly-hired head men’s basketball coach on NCAA rules and had processes in place to monitor recruiting telephone calls. It was during this monitoring activity that the violations were detected.

Specifically, one assistant coach made more than 200 impermissible calls to prospects, while another assistant coach made more than 100 such calls.  A third assistant coach and the head coach also made impermissible phone calls, but they were minimal in number.

In determining the penalties, the committee considered the university's self-imposed penalties, corrective actions, and cooperation. The penalties, some of which were self-imposed by the university and adopted by the committee, include:

• Public reprimand and censure.
• Two years of probation from February 25, 2011, through February 24, 2013.
• The assistant coach who made 212 impermissible calls was not allowed to participate in off-campus recruiting (contacts and evaluations) from November 7, 2008, through January 6, 2009. Further, he was not allowed to make any off-campus recruiting contacts, but was allowed to participate in evaluations from January 7, 2009, through September 1, 2009. This assistant coach was also not allowed to place or receive any recruiting phone calls for one year from November 7, 2008, to November 6, 2009 (self-imposed by the university).
• The assistant coach who made 107 impermissible calls was not allowed to make telephone contact with prospects for two weeks, from November 1 to November 15, 2009 (self-imposed by the university).  In addition, this assistant coach is not allowed to make telephone contact with prospect for 90 days, from March 12 to June 11, 2011.
• An assistant coach was not allowed to make telephone contact with prospects for two weeks from November 15 to November 29, 2009 (self-imposed by the university).
• The head coach was not allowed to make telephone contact with prospects for one week from October 11 to October 19, 2009 (self-imposed by the university).
• Limit of five men’s basketball official paid visits for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.
• The head coach and two assistant coaches must attend the NCAA Regional Rules Seminar.

The members of the Division I Committee on Infractions who reviewed this case include Dennis Thomas, the commissioner of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and chair of the Committee on Infractions. Other members are Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., attorney; John Black, attorney; Greg Sankey, associate commissioner of compliance for the Southeastern Conference; Josephine (Jo) R. Potuto, the Richard H. Larson Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Nebraska College of Law; and Eleanor Myers, faculty athletics representative and law professor at Temple University.