By Steve Wilstein
The Associated Press

Colorado got socked, Rick Neuheisel got slapped and Washington, an innocent bystander in the affair, got a share of the punishment.

Nobody ever accused the NCAA of having the wisdom of Solomon when it comes to meting out justice. Decisions on recruiting violations and other sins have often seemed arbitrary - penalties too hard or too soft, not quite fitting the alleged crimes.

This time, the NCAA came close to getting it right. No one was hurt too badly and no one really deserved to be.

Colorado lost five of 25 scholarships for one year, which won't seriously harm the Buffaloes, and was put on two years' probation for 53 rules violations, 51 when Neuheisel was the Colorado coach from 1995-98.

Most of the violations had to do with "bumping" into recruits on high school campuses. Others infractions were more piddling stuff - letting recruits keep apparel and giving them excessive compensation ranging from $3.20 to $36.76. Neuheisel was not exactly buying off players with Armani suits, BMWs and bags filled with unmarked bills.

"This was a serious case," the NCAA's infractions committee ruling said, "in which a football coaching staff, led by the former head football coach, in a calculated attempt to gain a recruiting advantage, pushed beyond the permissible bounds of legislation, resulting in a pattern of recruiting violations."

That's not how Neuheisel saw it. In August, he told the committee that he and his staff had accidental encounters with prospects on high school campuses - called "bumping" - and that Colorado did not gain a recruiting advantage as a result.

Untrue, committee chairman Tom Yeager said, noting that of the 26 prospective athletes involved, seven eventually enrolled at Colorado. It's possible, of course, that those seven might have gone to Colorado anyway, without a free cap or burger.

Neuheisel figures the NCAA was using this case as a warning to all coaches.

"The committee's obvious message is that these bumps should no longer be a part of the college football culture," he said.

For his part, Neuheisel is barred from off-campus recruiting at Washington until May 31. That may cramp his style and cost him some frequent flier points, but he can console himself with the $1.2 million a year he gets paid by the Huskies - not to mention the $1.5 million loan they recently gave him, which he can keep if he stays for the remaining six years of his contract.

The only part of this whole situation that seems unfair is that blameless Washington could be damaged by Neuheisel's grounding during the period when recruits are making up their minds. It's too bad the NCAA couldn't find a way to make Neuheisel pay for his mistakes, perhaps with a fine, rather than penalize a school that had nothing to do with the violations.

When a college athlete breaks the rules, even minor ones, his career can be ruined. When a coach cheats a little, he can move on to a new job.

This isn't the first time it happened, and it surely won't be the last.

A few weeks ago, an NCAA infractions appeals committee upheld a one-year postseason ban placed on Kentucky's football program. The ban was one of several sanctions levied against the school in January after internal and NCAA investigations unearthed dozens of recruiting violations.

The violations were committed during the four-year tenure of former coach Hal Mumme, who resigned in the wake of the NCAA's investigation.

Mumme escaped punishment and was hired in June as the coach of Southeastern Louisiana's newly restored football program, which will begin play in 2003.

"I have a real problem," Kentucky president Lee Todd said at the time, "with programs that get a sanction (for) lack of institutional control and the head coach of that program walks away free and clear and moves on to coach at another school while the students are left to pay the price."

Todd said that all schools and the NCAA should reassess "how full accountability of a college athletic program can be attained."

The penalty placed on Neuheisel, however slight and however it wrongly affects an innocent university, at least attempts to address Todd's concerns. Coaches should be held accountable for their violations at least as much as athletes are.

Then again, Mumme didn't get away without suffering a bit. He couldn't find a job for 18 months and will have to wait until next year before coaching again. At Southeastern Louisiana, he took over a program that, as he said, has "one football and one helmet, no players and a head coach."

For the damage he did to Kentucky, that's really all he deserved.

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Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at swilstein@ap.org.