NCAA Punishes UC-Berkeley for Rules Violations

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has placed the University of California at Berkeley on two years’ probation for recruiting violations in its men’s basketball program. A Division I Committee on Infractions report released Friday reveals that the men’s basketball coaching staff made 365 “impermissible recruiting phone calls.” The report notes that the violations began shortly after the hiring of Coach Mike Montgomery and his staff in the spring of 2008. The university’s compliance office “acted quickly” to train the new coach and his staff about NCAA rules and “had processes in place to monitor recruiting telephone calls.” Reviewing these records in the fall of 2008, the compliance officer discovered these violations. In addition to the two years’ probation for the university, the NCAA limited to five the number of official paid visits the men’s basketball team can offer recruits for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.