The former University of Alabama head baseball coach knowingly provided inside information to a player who bet against the Crimson Tide in an SEC game last spring, the NCAA said Thursday in announcing sanctions for both the coach and the school.
Former Alabama coach Brad Bohannon, who was fired in May, was not involved in the NCAA investigation into suspicious betting on a baseball game between Alabama and LSU on April 28, 2023.
The NCAA determined that Bohannon violated betting and ethical conduct rules and received a 15-year show cause order. Any NCAA institution that hires Bohannon must suspend him for “100% of the regular baseball season during the first five seasons of his employment.”
The university received three years of probation, a $5,000 fine and must hire a company to provide comprehensive gambling education to student-athletes, coaches and sports administrators.
According to the NCAA, Bohannon sent a message to a person he knew was betting on an Alabama baseball game on April 28, 2003: “[Student-athlete] it's available for sure…let me know when I can tell [the opposing team] …Hurry up,” Bohannon texted the bettor, according to the NCAA.
After receiving information from Bohannon, the bettor, identified Wednesday as Bert Eugene Neff, attempted to place a $100,000 bet on the Alabama game, but sportsbook staff limited him to a $15,000 bet, according to the NCAA. . The bet was placed at the BetMGM sportsbook at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, according to gaming regulators in Indiana and Ohio.
Alabama cut its starting pitcher before the game, which LSU won 8-6.
“The integrity of the games is of utmost importance to the members of the NCAA, and the panel is deeply concerned about Bohannon's unethical behavior,” said Vince Nicastro, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Big East, who oversaw the panel. who reviewed the case. “Coaches, student-athletes and administrators have access to information considered valuable to those who engage in betting. Improper sharing of that information for sports betting purposes goes to the heart of the honesty and sportsmanship we expect from our members and is particularly egregious. when it is shared by those who have the ability to influence the outcome of the games.”
Neff, an Indiana businessman and youth baseball coach, pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal obstruction charges related to the investigation of the Alabama-LSU baseball game. Neff has been named the gambler in question by gaming regulators in Indiana and Ohio.
Neff's attorney, Jeff Baldwin, told ESPN in September that his client made only one bet involving LSU, “a parlay.”
However, federal authorities said in the plea agreement that Neff made another bet on the game with a competing sportsbook and passed the information to at least four other players.
Neff faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of no more than $250,000 for destroying evidence, tampering with witnesses and providing false statements to the FBI, according to the plea agreement released Wednesday.
The Indiana Gaming Commission and the Ohio Casino Control Commission (OCCC) have announced plans to ban Neff from the states' gaming institution due to suspicious gambling. Neff informed the OCCC that he will appeal.
Bohannon, who coached Alabama from 2017 until his firing in May 2023, will also be added to the OCCC's involuntary exclusion list.
