Cincinnati Baseball Coach Resigns Amid College Betting Scandal

University of Cincinnati baseball head coach Scott Googins has stepped down after six seasons amid an ongoing NCAA investigation into the betting activity of a player’s parent.

Bert Eugene Neff Jr, whose son, Andrew, pitches for the Bearcats, placed wagers at a sportsbook inside Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark before an Alabama-LSU baseball game on April 28, according to Sports Illustrated. Surveillance inside the sportsbook indicated that Neff was in communication with Alabama head coach Brad Bohannon as he placed wagers on LSU to win.

Alabama’s top pitcher, Luke Holman, was scratched from his scheduled April 28 start against LSU, reportedly due to a back issue, and the Tigers won the game, 8-6.

Alabama fired Bohannon on May 4, with Googins now the second head coach to leave his program amid this college baseball betting scandal. In May, Cincinnati fired assistant baseball coach Kyle Sprague and director of operations Andy Nagel for having knowledge of Neff’s gambling activity and not reporting it to school administrators, SI reports. 

Gambling regulators in Indiana were reportedly the first to flag suspicions of Bert Neff’s betting activity. Neff is from Mooresville, Indiana, and was a college pitcher at Indiana and Louisville in the 1990s. He is well connected in Indiana amateur baseball circles due to his administrative role with Indiana Elite baseball, which has sent several players to Division I institutions.

In addition to Alabama and Cincinnati, investigations are ongoing at Iowa and Iowa State, where a combined 41 student-athletes were suspended for potentially violating the NCAA’s rules on sports betting.