Neuheisel: I didn't try to break rules

Washington Coach Rick Neuheisel said yesterday, "I never deceived or was dishonest one time" during his tenure as coach at Colorado from 1995-98.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions, however, ruled yesterday afternoon that Colorado had committed at least 50 recruiting violations during Neuheisel's four seasons in Boulder, ending a nearly four-year-long investigation on the matter.

As punishment, the committee ordered Neuheisel to refrain from any off-campus recruiting through May 31, 2003. Neuheisel had said earlier this summer that he would no longer make off-campus visits during the May evaluation period — he made only one visit last May and didn't plan to make any in May 2003 — which he hoped the committee would accept as a penalty.

The NCAA decided, however, to penalize Neuheisel additionally by keeping him off the road for the next eight months, which includes the crucial December-through letter-of-intent recruiting period in early February.

Colorado also was placed on two years' probation (though the school is not banned from bowl games or TV appearances) limited to 20 football scholarships (down from 25) in either the 2003 or 2004 seasons (at Colorado's discretion) and had the number of recruiting visits it can host reduced from 56 to 51 the next two seasons.

Neuheisel said he would not appeal the penalty, though UW Athletic Director Barbara Hedges said in a statement that the school is still determining "whether there are any options."

"I'm looking forward to moving on and operating this program with the highest level of integrity imaginable," Neuheisel said.

All of the violations were secondary in nature. The majority were for impermissible contact, such as bumping into a recruit during a visit to that recruit's high school. Others involved allowing recruits to keep clothing given to them during their recruiting visit and reimbursing recruits for more money than they were allotted during their visit, ranging from $3.20 to $36.76.

Committee chairman Tom Yeager said that, taken individually, the violations "would not be considered very serious. But in the recruiting process, any violation could impact the decision of a student-athlete, and therefore recruiting violations are of great concern to the NCAA.

"... What made this case major was not only the calculated attempt to gain a recruiting advantage but also the number and pattern of the violations. On several occasions, the attempt to be creative in nature resulted only in creative violations."

Neuheisel, however, said he felt his mistake was not clarifying with his school's compliance office whether he was acting within the spirit of the rules.

"I feel badly that the University of Washington takes the brunt for things that took place 4-5-6-7 years ago," Neuheisel said. "It doesn't seem just in that regard."

But Neuheisel also said he thinks he was penalized because the NCAA is trying to "send a message" about bumping, where coaches make "inadvertent" contact with recruits during visits to high schools in May and predicted that there will soon be NCAA legislation on the matter. Coaches are allowed to talk to high-school coaches and other personnel but are not supposed to talk to recruits themselves during that time.

Yeager agreed that the NCAA was trying to make a statement about bumps.

"The committee heard extensive testimony about the May evaluation period that it might be kind of an accepted practice, kind of a gentleman's agreement, that short bumps are permissible within the coaching culture," Yeager said. "The committee completely disavows that."

Neuheisel was penalized under a "show-cause" provision that allows the NCAA to penalize coaches for their actions in a previous job.

The UW must monitor Neuheisel and file a report June 5, 2003, showing he followed the terms of the penalty.

Hedges defended Neuheisel in her statement, saying that "except for that first Sunday in 1999 (when the Huskies were cited for making illegal visits to recruits) Rick has worked closely with our compliance staff to ensure that he and his coaches operate well within the rules."

The UW itself was not penalized.

"But it does have the institutional consequence of being unable to have its head football coach on the road recruiting and making personal contact," Yeager said. "That is a disadvantage."

Neuheisel said he usually visits 20-40 homes a year.

"I love to go out and sell this place and to not be allowed to do that is a hardship, no question," Neuheisel said, adding that he will now be "making a lot of phone calls."

Yeager said of 26 recruits who were the subject of impermissible contact by Neuheisel or his staff at Colorado, six signed with the Buffs, which he said was a significant number.

Yeager said Neuheisel and his staff weren't the only ones to blame, however, which is why CU also was penalized.

"It's not just a case about the former staff," he said. "While in fact the violations occurred during that time frame, there were institutional accountability issues that also occurred and the fact that there was a failure to monitor that was involved. In the end (Colorado) benefited from these recruiting violations in the recruitment and enrollment of the student-athletes that were involved. It would not be completely proper to just say this was laid solely at the feet of the former staff."

CU Coach Gary Barnett and Athletic Director Dick Tharp each declined to comment on Neuheisel specifically while saying that they felt the Buffs would be able to recover from their penalties. "The damage is very, very minimal," Barnett said. "The only hardship is on us as coaches."