This is one of the strangest things I've ever heard of or witnessed in a lifetime of watching sporting events.Rick Neuheisel, whose UCLA team plays Oregon in the inaugural PAC-12 football championship game on Friday night, has been fired after four years at the Westwood university.
He will be allowed to coach against Oregon, but no more.
His team has a .500 record and landed in the championship game after a fluke combination of events forced a tiebreaker among the also-rans of of a PAC South Division dominated by the probation-stuck USC Trojans.
The Trojans demonstrated their skills in a victory over Oregon in Eugene two weeks ago. But they are ineligible to play for the PAC-12 title after getting nabbed two years ago for violating NCAA rules.
(The NCAA is a monolith of absurdity, but that is another story for another day.)
Yet, if UCLA manages to upset Oregon and go to the Rose Bowl, Neuheisel will not be coaching along the Bruins' sideline.
When is the last time a Rose Bowl-bound team fired its head coach on the eve of one of college football's grand showcases?
It has never happened. If UCLA were to upset Nike U. and get into the Rose Bowl, the strangeness of this 2011 season will be sealed for eternity.
TS
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