Blaine Newnham / Times associate editor
NCAA might give Hedges no option but to fire Neuheisel
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What if it had been one of Washington's players caught wagering in a high-stakes pool on the NCAA men's basketball championships?
Instead of its coach.
The player, even though he hadn't paid attention when counseled about the dangers of gambling, even though the pool had nothing to do with illegal gambling, even though he played football and not basketball, would lose his eligibility.
Rick Neuheisel is about to lose his.
The NCAA will make a big deal out of this even if many, including Neuheisel, is shocked that it is.
Jack Sikma, the former Sonics great, said he also was involved in the neighborhood auction pool on the 2002 NCAA basketball tournament.
"It was a kind of office pool, just another way to go about it," Sikma said. "I don't think any of us thought it was inappropriate. We were just having fun.
"I'm totally stunned. I hate to see Rick hurt by something like this."
He will be.
The NCAA is more concerned about gambling in college athletics than it is about recruiting violations. Its punishments have been swift and harsh.
A year before that, an assistant football coach was fired and suspended from college coaching for two years after he repeatedly gambled $200 to $300 on college and pro games.
A head coach such as Neuheisel, and especially someone already under NCAA sanctions, will be treated at least as sternly.
You can understand Sikma's confusion, and his compassion for a friend. When does an office pool become something sinister? It isn't illegal in this state, it isn't run by the mob. It's just rich guys having fun.
But when the money bet on a team is in the thousands, which it apparently was, when one college coach bets on another college team, when inside information could be important, when players could be influenced, then the NCAA gets involved big time.
To his credit, Neuheisel didn't try to sidestep the issue. Or lie about it. Yesterday, he admitted involvement in the pool in 2002 and again this year.
But the latter came after the NCAA had sanctioned him and his university president had told him to walk the straight and narrow.
Even his boss, athletic director Barbara Hedges, admitted last night that he should have known the NCAA rules, which don't differentiate between organized gambling and an office pool.
"You can't minimize this," Hedges said. "The university will take this seriously. I do believe Rick should have understood the rules. He just didn't relate them to the particular situation he was in."
It shouldn't have escaped Neuheisel that there is no office pool in the UW athletic department for NCAA basketball tournaments.
Hedges might not have to decide whether this is the straw that breaks her coach's back, the culmination of problems that began in Colorado and embarrassingly followed him at Washington.
The NCAA may give her no option but to find a new coach. Washington can't conduct a program with a coach who is suspended for a season or two. Or would want to, given Neuheisel's regrettable track record.
For many, the casual betting among friends is less embarrassing to the university than Neuheisel's decision earlier this year to lie about his interview with the San Francisco 49ers.
But it all adds up, from the beginning when he didn't understand the rules about when he could and couldn't recruit athletes, to what may well be the end, when he didn't realize that he shouldn't be gambling on college sports.
He was more thoughtless than arrogant about the rules this time, but the stakes got so much higher when gambling was involved.
Hedges said all Neuheisel had to do was ask for an interpretation if he was confused about rules. He never asked about gambling.
Neuheisel seemed perfect for college coaching, his ability to relate to kids, his passion for the game and all that surrounded it.
In the end, one mistake might take him down, but it was an attitude, an arrogance, that put him in the position to take the fall.
What will Hedges do?
She seems to have no choice but to fire Neuheisel, and, at this late date, move to either replace him with offensive coordinator Keith Gilbertson, who has head-coaching experience, or go after another link to the past, Gary Pinkel, the Missouri coach.
If she doesn't act, the NCAA will.