The Pacific-10 Conference maintains a comprehensive compliance and enforcement program. In doing so, its goal is to assist its member institutions in conducting high quality intercollegiate athletic programs in accordance with Conference and NCAA rules. The Conference believes that by conducting its own enforcement program it can best serve its members through timely investigation and resolution of potential enforcement matters.

When an institution discovers potentially serious rules violations within its program, it shall have the option of either asking the Conference office to investigate or conducting a self-investigation. Any self-investigation shall meet the Conference's standards for thoroughness and due process. The institution shall contact the Conference office once it determines it will conduct a self-investigation and shall make periodic reports to the Conference office on the progress of the investigation. The Conference office shall inform the NCAA that a self-investigation is occurring and shall keep the NCAA informed of the progress of the investigation. The Conference office, at its discretion, may participate in interviews.

When the Conference office discovers potential rules violations at one of its member institutions, as a general rule, the Conference office shall conduct an investigation in accordance with the investigative provisions followed by the NCAA enforcement staff as set forth in NCAA Bylaws 19 and 32, usually in cooperation with the involved member institution. The complete Pac-10 investigative and enforcement policies are in Chapter 2 of the Compliance and Enforcement Regulations in the Pac-10 Handbook.

Formal investigative and enforcement procedures may be employed when the Commissioner judges that information received by the Conference office concerning a member institution or its personnel warrants Conference review.

If, after investigation, the Commissioner receives information that raises the reasonable cause for concern that violations of NCAA or Conference legislation which warrant the review by the Compliance and Enforcement Committee may have occurred, the Commissioner shall present the allegations to the involved institution in a document known as the Notice of Charges. The Notice of Charges shall include a sufficient amount of supporting evidence to enable an institution to conduct its own investigation of the allegations, and shall establish a reasonable deadline for the institution's written response. The Notice of Charges and the institution's written response shall be forwarded to members of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee.

The Compliance and Enforcement Committee shall consist of four Council members, appointed by the Selection Committee. Two of the members shall be representatives of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Committee, one shall be a representative of the Senior Women Administrators Committee and one shall be a representative of the Athletics Directors Committee. It is the duty of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee to determine whether alleged violations have occurred, and to recommend penalties and corrective actions to the Council.

The Council shall initially review and either ratify or remand for further consideration the findings of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee concerning violations. The Council also shall review and either ratify, amend, or reject penalties and corrective actions recommended by the Compliance and Enforcement Committee. Such actions shall be by a majority vote of those members eligible to vote, with the institution whose employees and/or student-athletes are involved in alleged violations abstaining from voting.

Attendance at the Council meeting when it reviews the case shall be limited to members of the Council, representatives identified at the discretion of the involved institution (which shall not include representatives of its athletics interests as defined by NCAA 13.02.13) and representatives of the Conference office and Conference legal counsel. Institutional representatives and the Conference office representative who was the primary investigator in the case shall be excused during any deliberation and decision phase of the Council meeting.

The Chief Executive Officers Group shall receive recommendations from the Council concerning findings, penalties, and corrective actions. The recommendations with regard to findings must be affirmed or remanded for further consideration to the Compliance and Enforcement Committee and Council by a minimum of six votes of the Chief Executive Officers entitled to vote.

The Conference shall request the presence of a member of the NCAA enforcement staff to attend each in-person hearing of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee to expedite review of the case by the NCAA. The NCAA staff member shall be a silent observer and shall not participate actively in the hearing.

The following situations are exempted from the normal enforcement procedures and shall be dealt with exlusively as described:

A. When an ineligible player(s) has participated other than on the losing team in a contest(s), and the Commissioner receives official notification of that participation, the contest(s) in which the ineligible player participated shall be reviewed. If the Commissioner concludes that the violation was de minimis or the participation had negligible impact on the oucome of the contest(s), the Commissioner may declare the contest(s) to stand as played. That decision shall be forwarded to the Council within ten days. In all other instances, or if any institution objects to the Commissioner's determination of a de minimis violation or negligible participation, the case shall be referred to the Compliance and Enforcement Committee for review.

If the Commissioner prefers, a case may be referred to the Compliance and Enforcement Committee for review without prior evaluation of the severity of the violation or of the impact of the participation by the ineligible player. After hearing the evidence, the Committee may declare the contest(s) stand as played, require the contest(s) to be forfeited, or declare the contest(s) as "no contest" if it determines that circumstances warrant such a decision. The Committee may revisit the decision about the disposition of the contest(s) if new information is developed. A member of the Committee who represents the institution at which the ineligible player(s) competed shall be excused from service on the Committee with respect to that case and a replacement member shall be named by the President.

The action of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee shall be final unless appealed by any member institution within five working days of the announcement of the decision. An institution may petition the Council for a reversal of the decision by the Committee based upon the circumstances of the violation, which the Council may grant by majority vote. The outcome of any appeal shall be ratified by the Chief Executive Officers Group.

The review and appeal process may be handled on an expedited basis if a final determination of the status of the contest(s) must be made in a timely manner due to qualification for subsequent competition or for other timely issues.

B. When there has been judicially compelled entry of a student-athlete previously determined ineligible, or upon voluntary vacation of an injunction or restraining order, final determination that an injunction or restraining order was improvidently issued, or final denial of judicial relief sought by the student-athlete, the procedure set forth in the immediately preceding paragraph shall apply.

C. The Council shall have the authority to require a member institution to declare a student-athlete ineligible for intercollegiate athletics competition.