Seattle slew of trouble

Washington officials meet about Neuheisel's future

Rich Neuheisel met with his players on Thursday night at Husky Stadium. AP

SEATTLE (AP) -- Rick Neuheisel still is Washington's football coach -- at least until Monday.

University officials were in meetings all day Friday discussing Neuheisel's future. But no decision was announced on whether to discipline or fire Neuheisel for taking part in college basketball betting pools.

"There will be no formal statement or press conference today or over the weekend regarding the university's examination of potential NCAA rules violations with head football coach Rick Neuheisel," the university said in a statement.

"The university continues to gather facts and information regarding this case. When sufficient information has been collected, there will be a release of a statement or a press conference."

Neuheisel, in his fourth year at Washington, could lose his job as early as Monday. Any form of gambling by a college coach on college sports is prohibited by the NCAA and can be considered a major violation.

Neuheisel, 42, admitted he participated in the basketball pools the past two years. NCAA investigators talked to him this week, and he admitted to them that he was part of a four-member "team," with friends and neighbors, that won the NCAA tournament with Syracuse in 2003 and Maryland in 2002.

Neuheisel wants desperately to keep his job.

"I believe I am completely innocent," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer late Thursday night.

"I told them I was going to fight this, just like we fought when we were 4-5," he said. "My first, second and third choice on this is to remain the Washington coach."

The Huskies are under pressure from the NCAA to take some sort of action.

NCAA president Myles Brand told The Associated Press by telephone from Indianapolis on Friday that he couldn't comment specificially on the Neuheisel case because Neuheisel was under investigation by the NCAA and the Pac-10.

"But I can comment on issues of gambling by a coach that involve young people," Brand said. "I feel that it's totally unacceptable behavior. It's wrong and should be dealt with severely."

Brand said that if he were a school president, he would fire a coach who gambled on college sports.

"I would take personnel action," he said.

The NCAA cannot fire a coach, only impose sanctions against schools whose coaches don't adhere to the organization's rules, Brand pointed out.

University officials met Thursday to discuss Neuheisel's future, with athletic department spokesman Jim Daves saying Thursday night that the school had no comment.

Lee Huntsman, the university's interim president, was in meetings with athletic officials and did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The Seattle Times reported Thursday that Neuheisel participated in NCAA basketball pools the past two years. Two NCAA investigators and one from the Pac-10 Conference questioned him Wednesday after receiving a tip that he put up $5,000 and won about $20,000 by picking Maryland in 2002.

NCAA spokesman Jeff Howard told the AP on Thursday that he could not comment about or confirm the investigation.

The NCAA manual specifies that coaches, staff members and athletes may not knowingly "solicit or accept a bet on any intercollegiate competition for any item [e.g., cash, shirt, dinner] that has tangible value."

Huskies athletic director Barbara Hedges told The Seattle Times she learned of Neuheisel's involvement in the betting pools late Wednesday and promised "a careful review of all the facts."

"Gambling is a serious violation of NCAA rules," Hedges said. "You can't minimize this. The university will take this very seriously."

Neuheisel said earlier he was part of a four-member "team" that had the overall winner in both years he participated in what he described as a pizza-and-beer gathering.

"I never knowingly participating in anything that I thought was against NCAA regulations," he told KING-TV on Thursday. "I thought I was at a neighborhood social gathering that was for fun. It'd been going on for some 20 years ... I got invited."

Neuheisel said his group split its winnings but he would not discuss dollar amounts.

Under the auction format, participants bid on each team. The highest bid gets that team in the tournament.

The 42-year-old Neuheisel has a 33-15 record in four seasons with the Huskies. Under a six-year contract extension he signed in September, he makes $1.2 million a year, and a five-year option could keep him at Washington until 2013.

The kind of pool Neuheisel described is not against state law unless a bookmaker is involved, but NCAA rules forbid any form of gambling on college sports by athletes and coaching staff.

Institutions can be sanctioned in such cases if violations were known to college officials or if the NCAA finds they should have known.

Many college athletic departments ban even small-change tournament brackets that are commonly filled out in offices nationwide during "March Madness."

"If an athlete or coach put $1 in a pool, certainly there would not be a significant penalty," said Bill Saum, the NCAA's director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities. "If there is a significant amount of money in the pool, there would be a significant penalty."

The Times reported that the NCAA investigators also questioned Neuheisel about two potential minor violations.

Neuheisel's most recent indiscretion was in February, when he issued a statement through the university denying he had been interviewed for the San Francisco 49ers' coaching vacancy -- then admitted he had in fact been interviewed.

Thursday is the deadline for the Huskies to report to the NCAA that Neuheisel has fulfilled all compliance requirements concerning 50 minor violations that were committed while he was coach at Colorado from 1995-98.

As the last requirement on the list, Neuheisel attended a regular NCAA compliance seminar Wednesday with athletic department officials from many schools.

 

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