SEATTLE -- Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel told coaches and players he would fight to keep his job, a day after he acknowledged breaking NCAA rules by betting on men's basketball tournaments.

	After attending a previously scheduled gathering with his players, Rick Neuheisel said he'll coach Washington "until told otherwise."

"I told them I was going to fight this, just like we fought when we were 4-5. My first, second and third choice on this is to remain the Washington coach," he said Thursday night after meeting with the team in a previously scheduled gathering.

Asked if he would continue to coach the Huskies, he said, "Until I'm told otherwise."

"I believe I am completely innocent," he told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer late Thursday night.

NCAA president Myles Brand told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday that he couldn't comment specifically on the case because Neuheisel was under investigation by the NCAA and the Pac-10.

"But I can comment on issues of gambling by a coach that involve young people," Brand said. "I feel that it's totally unacceptable behavior. It's wrong and should be dealt with severely."

Brand said that if he were a school president, he would "take personnel action."

University officials met Thursday to discuss Neuheisel's future, with athletic department spokesman Jim Daves saying Thursday night that the school had no comment.

Lee Huntsman, the university's interim president, did not return a phone call from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The Seattle Times reported Thursday that Neuheisel participated in NCAA basketball pools the past two years. Two NCAA investigators and one from the Pac-10 Conference questioned him Wednesday after receiving a tip that he put up $5,000 and won about $20,000 by picking Maryland in 2002.

NCAA spokesman Jeff Howard told the AP on Thursday that he could not comment about or confirm the investigation.

The NCAA manual specifies that coaches, staff members and athletes may not knowingly "solicit or accept a bet on any intercollegiate competition for any item (e.g., cash, shirt, dinner) that has tangible value."

Huskies athletic director Barbara Hedges told The Seattle Times she learned of Neuheisel's involvement in the betting pools late Wednesday and promised "a careful review of all the facts."

"Gambling is a serious violation of NCAA rules," Hedges said. "You can't minimize this. The university will take this very seriously."

Several players entering and leaving the meeting Thursday declared their support for the coach.

"He was just saying 'stay focused and get ready for the season,' " freshman quarterback Isaiah Stanback told the AP. "That's pretty much all he said."

Rick Redman, a longtime Washington booster and former Huskies All-American, said many boosters were dumbfounded at Neuheisel's misstep.

"It's just really unfortunate that Rick didn't think this thing through," Redman told The Seattle Times. "I'm like a lot of other people that are surprised that he didn't.

"I think we're all surprised that a very bright guy who's a great communicator and very bright in terms of his natural intelligence isn't able to put these things together and realize he's tarnishing his reputation and taking risks above and beyond."

Neuheisel said earlier he was part of a four-member "team" that had the overall winner in both years he participated in what he described as a pizza-and-beer gathering.

"I never knowingly participated in anything that I thought was against NCAA regulations," he told KING-TV on Thursday. "I thought I was at a neighborhood social gathering that was for fun. It'd been going on for some 20 years ... I got invited."

Neuheisel said his group split its winnings but he would not discuss dollar amounts.

Under the auction format, participants bid on each team. The highest bid gets that team in the tournament.

The 42-year-old Neuheisel has a 33-15 record in four seasons with the Huskies. Under a six-year contract extension he signed in September, he makes $1.2 million a year, and a five-year option could keep him at Washington until 2013.

The kind of pool Neuheisel described is not against state law unless a bookmaker is involved, but NCAA rules forbid any form of gambling on college sports by athletes and coaching staff.

Institutions can be sanctioned in such cases if violations were known to college officials or if the NCAA finds they should have known.

Many college athletic departments ban even small-change tournament brackets that are commonly filled out in offices nationwide during "March Madness."

"If an athlete or coach put $1 in a pool, certainly there would not be a significant penalty," said Bill Saum, the NCAA's director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities. "If there is a significant amount of money in the pool, there would be a significant penalty."

The Times reported that the NCAA investigators also questioned Neuheisel about two potential minor violations.

Neuheisel's most recent indiscretion was in February, when he issued a statement through the university denying he had been interviewed for the San Francisco 49ers' coaching vacancy -- then admitted he had in fact been interviewed.

There was a Thursday deadline for the Huskies to report to the NCAA that Neuheisel has fulfilled all compliance requirements concerning 50 minor violations that were committed while he was coach at Colorado from 1995-98.

As the last requirement on the list, Neuheisel attended a regular NCAA compliance seminar Wednesday with athletic department officials from many schools.