Washington cans Neuheisel over pool winnings

Report: Washington cans Neuheisel over pool winnings
June 11, 2003
SportsLine.com wire reports
SEATTLE -- University of Washington head football coach Rick Neuheisel has reportedly been fired after twice participating in an NCAA tournament gambling pool, something strictly forbidden for college athletes and staffers.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Neuheisel was informed by Washington athletic director Barbara Hedges of the firing on Tuesday morning.

The newspaper also said that offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson would be named interim head coach and that the rest of the coaching staff would be retained.

The accusations began last week when a pair of NCAA investigators and one from the Pac-10 Conference, of which Washington is a member, were in Seattle to meet with Neuheisel and university officials. They were acting on a tip that the Huskies coach wagered $5,000 on Maryland in an auction-format March Madness pool before the 2002 men's basketball tournament, winning some $20,000 when the Terrapins pulled out a victory last March.

The widespread pools are popular come tournament time and are not against Washington state law when a bookmaker isn't involved, but the NCAA prohibits collegiate athletes and staffers from taking part.

Allegations of wrongdoing are nothing new for Neuheisel, whose four-year tenure at Washington has been rocky. Most recently, in February of this year, he issued a statement denying that he'd interviewed for the vacant San Francisco 49ers head coaching position, even though he had met with the NFL team.

The 42-year-old Neuheisel, who also has coached in Colorado, compiled a 33-16 record with the Huskies.

Neuheisel agreed to a six-year contract extension in September that would have kept him walking the sidelines through the 2008 season. The Huskies finished the 2002 campaign with a 7-6 record, narrowly avoiding the school's first losing season in almost 30 years.


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karma baby, karma!!

After Neuheisel unceremoniously left his Colorado team for greener pasture$$$$$, now he gets dumped.

lolol

The dude is an idiot. What do you expect when your dropping 5 grand on a somewhat public March Madness pool. He doesn't have his head on straight to do a good job IMO and I would have fired him too.


BGray

Remember now, he went an played in the USFL as a QB and claimed it would blow the doors off the NFL......that should have warned people about his intelligence....

Do you think he will get another high profile job?

Neuheisel and Price (Alabama) are one-of-a-kind coaches.

They've got nice, secure coaching positions.

Make great money ($10M for Price), and yet,

one bets on NCAA games

the other goes to strip joints and does stuff there.

Now, I think that going to strip joints is fine (those ladies need to make money for themselves too, don't forget).....but what got Price fired is the other stuff he was doing there

Originally posted by BGray
The dude is an idiot. What do you expect when your dropping 5 grand on a somewhat public March Madness pool. He doesn't have his head on straight to do a good job IMO and I would have fired him too.


BGray

I still don't see that doing a bracket is a fireable offense and there will be a wrongful dismissle lawsuit in the future. I'm sure they'll be able to find in the past where a coach (or hell even a president of a school) has done a bracket and not lost their job.

Come on, aren't these men allowed to live normal lives, and not lives like their the Pope or something? These are men for Petes sake, they weren't hurting anyone. If someone wants to gamble, or see women naked, let them. If their wifes don't like it, than it's up to them, but they shouldn't lose their jobs over this stuff IMO.

i agree with Tigers. Price IMO should've and deserved to get fired but Neuheisel gambled. last time i checked it wasn't against the law to gamble. let these men live normal lives for crying out loud. this stiff gets taken way too far sometimes.

he should still have a job

It is illegal to bet on college athletics if you are directly involved in the NCAA. It's part of the clearing house you have to sign before you can be involved in the NCAA. I don't agree that neuhisel got fired (mostly because of the email he recieved) but still a rule is a rule. Much like what happened to Pete Rose, much controversy, but the schools, and the NCAA will just hide behind "it's in the rulebook". And there are no arguments for that.