Over two months after an Alabama Crimson Tide baseball road game against the No. 1 LSU Tigers became the center of a gambling scandal, more details have emerged about the incident.
According to a report by Sports Illustrated writer Pat Forde, Bert Eugene Neff Jr. went into the BetMGM Sportsbook at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati to place a bet of $100,000 on the Alabama vs. LSU college baseball game on April 28. This large bet well exceeded the sportsbook’s limits and paired with the fact that the game had received very little gambling action, red flags were raised immediately and ultimately would cost Alabama baseball head coach Brad Bohannon his job. One of Forde’s sources said, “It couldn’t have been any more reckless.”
In an effort to validate his reason for such a large bet, Neff told employees he had inside information, which was later discovered that he did via text messages from Brad Bohannon. Neff was so reckless and indiscreet, Forde reported, that the sportsbook’s surveillance cameras were able to zoom in and see the text conversation between Neff and Bohannon that Alabama was having to scratch their ace pitcher Luke Holman because of back tightness, and replacing him with Hagan Banks who hadn’t started a game in over a month.
While it is still unclear if Bohannon was using Neff to place the wager for himself, sources told Forde he most likely knew what Neff was doing with the information that was given as he was part of a group text with Neff and his gambling associates. Bohannon was fired on May 4th, and pitching coach Jason Jackson was given the interim head coach title.
With Jackson at the helm of the Alabama baseball team, the Crimson Tide finished the season 43-21 in one of their best seasons in program history, hosting and winning a regional before falling short of the Men’s College World Series losing to Wake Forest in the super regionals.
On June 13 Alabama introduced former Maryland baseball coach Rob Vaughn as the Crimson Tide’s new baseball coach.
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