The Plot Thickens in a College Baseball Gambling Scandal

I’ve written a couple of articles this month about the sports betting scandal that rocked the University of Alabama’s baseball program. At first glance, it looked like it was one of a handful of recent scandals that the Crimson Tide is dealing with, but it also appears to be the tip of the iceberg of a larger problem involving gambling at the college level.

For the uninitiated, here’s a quick recap to catch you up. At the end of April, gambling integrity firms noticed some unusual and suspicious betting activity taking place at the Cincinnati Reds’ Great American Ballpark involving a baseball game between Alabama and Louisiana State University. An investigation into the activity led to evidence that someone in Ohio was in contact with Alabama’s then-head coach Brad Bohannon, who the university subsequently fired.

This particular scandal was already complex since it involved activity taking place 861 miles away from where the game was going on and because gambling authorities in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada got involved in reporting the suspicious bets and banning further bets on Alabama games. But the story may have gotten more interesting with some recent developments.

On Thursday, the University of Cincinnati announced that it let two baseball staff members go as the result of an investigation regarding potential NCAA investigations.

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“In a statement released Wednesday, the school said assistant coach Kyle Sprague and director of operations Andy Nagel were relieved of their duties May 17,” ESPN reports. “The school said it began an internal review of potential NCAA infractions involving the baseball program on May 8 and that the review is ongoing.”

The university didn’t say much about the situation, only that “UC is cooperating with the NCAA in this matter” and that it would not be “commenting further at this time.”

Remember that the suspicious bets surrounding the Alabama-LSU game took place at the Major League ballpark in Cincinnati, which makes the University of Cincinnati’s actions even more interesting. The two incidents seem to be separate from each other, but there’s a link between the two cases, and it boils down to one man.

ESPN reports that sources have identified Bert Neff of Mooresville, Ind., as having connections to the scandals at Alabama and Cincinnati. The report points out that “surveillance video from the sportsbook located at the Cincinnati Reds’ Great American Ballpark indicated the person who placed the bets was communicating with Bohannon at the time.”

“One of the people familiar with the investigations told the AP on Friday that Neff was the person who placed those bets,” adds the report.

Sports Illustrated reports that these sources, who have asked for anonymity, say that the two Cincinnati staffers were fired because of their “knowledge of Neff’s gambling activity, which the men did not report to school administrators.”

Neff has years of experience as a youth baseball coach and recruiter, as well as contacts throughout the state of Indiana and beyond. What’s more, his son Andrew is a pitcher for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, although he didn’t see playing time this past season.

“Neff’s gambling activity could also have criminal reverberations that go beyond the NCAA inquiries,” Sports Illustrated notes.

Jon Duncan, NCAA’s vice president of enforcement, told Sports Illustrated that gambling infractions are on the rise in college sports, stating that “You can throw a net and get any number of schools” committing sports betting-related infractions. It’ll be fascinating to see how these scandals play out and if they’re even more widespread than what we know now.