University of Cincinnati baseball coach Scott Googins has resigned, the university announced Wednesday following a losing season marred last month by dismissal of two assistant coaches for alleged knowledge of improper betting.
In the announcement, Athletics Director John Cunningham thanked Googins for his six-year tenure running the Bearcats program and made no mention of the questions surrounding conduct of the assistants fired two weeks ago. Googins has not been accused of any sports betting or NCAA violations himself, but the assistants allegedly had knowledge of NCAA betting violations and failed to report them.
The betting activity reportedly involves Bert Neff, an Indiana man who is the father of a Cincinnati player and whose actions previously resulted in Alabama coach Brian Bohannon being fired. Neff is accused of wagering on an Alabama-LSU game at the BetMGM Sportsbook at Great American Ball Park while acting on information from Bohannan. The unusual bets, which included a parlay and a hefty moneyline wager, were caught by integrity monitoring services and resulted in the Ohio Casino Control Commission suspending wagering on Alabama baseball.
Bets result in lost jobs
Googins had only one winning season at Cincinnati after taking over the program in 2018. The team finished 24-33 this season and did not qualify for postseason play. That record includes several losses after director of baseball operations Andy Nagel and hitting coach Kyle Sprague were let go May 17. Neither assistant is accused of betting on Cincinnati baseball, but they apparently had knowledge of Neff’s bets on the April 28 Alabama-LSU game.
University of Cincinnati baseball coach Scott Googins resigns https://t.co/lffpeNTxhb
— Enquirer Sports (@ENQSports) May 31, 2023
Alabama is the No. 1 seed at the NCAA’s Tuscaloosa Regional, which begins Friday. The Tide, who finished the season ranked No. 16 nationally, will play 4-seed Nicholls in the first game. Former assistant Jason Jackson, who is Alabama’s interim coach, has led the team to a 10-4 record since taking over in early May.
