Washington Is Not Implicated : Colleges: Pac-10 committee recommends no penalties against the Huskies, despite quarterback’s receiving $50,000 in loans.

A Pacific 10 Conference committee Thursday recommended that the University of Washington not be required to forfeit any of the eight games in which quarterback Billy Joe Hobert played this season.

Hobert was declared ineligible by the school Tuesday after an investigation, conducted jointly by university and Pac-10 officials, had concluded that $50,000 in loans he received last spring from the father-in-law of a friend violated NCAA rules.

The recommendation of the three-member committee, appointed by Pac-10 Commissioner Tom Hansen to review the forfeiture aspect of the case, will be considered by the Pac-10 Council at a meeting Sunday in San Francisco. The council’s decision will be reviewed by the chief executive officers of the conference’s schools.

The review committee made its decision after meeting privately for four hours Thursday in Los Angeles. Serving on the committee were Doug Hobbs, faculty athletic representative at UCLA; Ted Leland, Stanford athletic director, and Patricia Drapela, senior woman athletic administrator at Oregon State.

The committee opinion was unanimous, the conference announced.

Crucial to the panel’s thinking, according to Hobbs, was that Washington athletic officials did not know that Hobert had received the loans until it was disclosed last week by the Seattle Times. Hobert was held out of the Huskies’ game against Arizona last Saturday after the newspaper’s disclosure.

“The committee began from the presumption that the outcome of games should be altered only when a compelling reason exists,” Hobbs said. “The committee felt there was not substantial evidence to indicate that Washington either knew, or should have known, about the loan to Hobert.”

Washington Athletic Director Barbara Hedges said in a prepared statement that the school was encouraged by the committee’s recommendation.

Hobert received the loans from Charles M. Rice, a nuclear engineer from Idaho Falls, Ida. Rice’s son-in-law, Rudy Finne, is a Seattle commercial fisherman who has been a golfing partner of Hobert.

Although Rice has no apparent ties to the Husky athletic program, the loan was improper under NCAA rules, the joint inquiry conducted by the school and Pac-10 determined, because it was based in part on Hobert’s earning potential as a professional football player.

Hobert, a junior, led Washington to a 12-0 record last season, but he was relegated to a backup role behind Mark Brunell after five games this season.