NCAA Committee on Infractions and Pepperdine University Resolve Self-Reported Violations
Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends.
Pepperdine University continues to comply with the NCAA Committee on Infractions regarding
self-reported violations that occurred between 2007-2008 and 2010-2011. Many of the
penalties issued to Pepperdine were proposed by the University and agreed to by the
Committee on Infractions.
The violations included misapplying progress-toward-degree rules for transfer student-athletes;
not seeking reinstatement for an ineligible student-athlete; inadvertently over-awarding
the number of allowable athletic scholarships; not properly creating and maintaining
squad lists; not properly documenting awarded nonathletic scholarships, which do not
“count” against the permissible athletic scholarships; and inadvertently not completing
an annual certificate of compliance.
Since discovering these unintentional violations, Pepperdine has strengthened its
oversight and compliance processes, including bringing on two experienced individuals
to its compliance staff, and making a commitment to continuing rules education University-wide.
When the grant-in-aid violations were discovered in the spring of 2011, Pepperdine
immediately self-imposed a one-year postseason ban for the three teams that were over-awarded
but were still in the middle of their seasons: baseball, men’s tennis, and men’s volleyball.
Additional penalties included public reprimand and censure and four years of probation
through the 2015-2016 season.