NCAA Punishes Alabama, Former Baseball Coach After Betting Scandal

On Thursday, the NCAA handed down significant penalties to former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon regarding his illegal betting activity last April. 

Bohannon, who Alabama fired in May, faces a 15-year “show-cause” order requiring that any school employing him for sports activities be “suspended for 100% of the baseball regular season for the first five seasons of his employment.”

The governing body also put Alabama’s baseball team on a three-year probation and required the school to pay a $5,000 fine.

The NCAA’s report provided new details of the case, including the content of communications that Bohannon sent via encrypted message that were used to place bets on an Alabama-LSU regular-season matchup. 

Bohannon was fired from Alabama for providing inside information about a starting pitcher being scratched before the game in an attempt to help place a bet in Cincinnati. The message: “[Student-athlete] is out for sure. … Lemme know when I can tell the [opposing team]. … Hurry.”  (The pitcher was star Luke Holman, and the opposing team was LSU.)

The investigation also noted that Bohannon’s proxy attempted to wager $100,000 on the game, confirming a Sports Illustrated report. The NCAA said the bettor, Bert Eugene Neff Jr., was allowed to place a $15,000 bet, even though he showed the messages to the sportsbook, openly admitting that he had inside information.

“The panel is deeply troubled by Bohannon’s unethical behavior,” Vince Nicastro, deputy commissioner and chief operating officer of the Big East and chief hearing officer for the panel, said in a statement. Nicastro also called the sharing of information by a coach “egregious.”

Just yesterday, Neff Jr. was charged with obstruction of justice in a federal investigation, according to AL.com. Bohannon has also reportedly been banned from Ohio sportsbooks.