NCAA vows to learn from Neuheisel trial
Case was major public-relations black eye
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SEATTLE - In the wake of Rick Neuheisel's $4.5 million settlement from the NCAA and University of Washington, NCAA officials promised to study their investigative procedures to ensure the process is fair.
A larger lesson from the case, an NCAA official insisted, is that coaches should understand NCAA rules and be aware they are expected to cooperate fully with NCAA investigators.
"It is the only way the process works," said Wallace Renfro, senior adviser to NCAA president Myles Brand.
But will disclosures in Neuheisel's case force changes in the way the NCAA conducts business? Renfro wouldn't address specifics, echoing NCAA president Myles Brand's broad promise that the investigative process will be reviewed.
"That's something we do on an ongoing basis," Renfro said.
The case was a major public-relations black eye for the NCAA, which gave Neuheisel a $2.5 million cash payment in the settlement.
Neuheisel's lawyers maintained the organization violated its own bylaws to target the former Washington football coach about his participation in auction-style NCAA basketball pools.
Not that Neuheisel came away spotless -- he admitted lying when initially questioned by NCAA investigators, but said he was concerned that he was being targeted in an organized gambling case.
"Humans aren't perfect," Neuheisel said.
The NCAA infractions committee ultimately determined he broke rules against gambling but didn't sanction him, citing an e-mail by Washington's former compliance officer that mistakenly authorized such gambling.
Most damaging to the NCAA's court case was an internal e-mail by NCAA enforcement officer David Didion, expressing concern about how NCAA gambling chief Bill Saum was zealously pursuing the investigation.
"Saum wants to make an example of Neuheisel. ... Saum should not be the person to decide a coach's fate to give him clout over institutions," Didion wrote.
Renfro refused to say if Saum, or any other NCAA employee, would be disciplined in the Neuheisel case, citing personnel issues.
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