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Bert Neff gained notoriety on April 28, 2023, when he entered an MGM casino in Ohio. Equipped with information from former Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohanan—who told him Alabama had benched its starting pitcher—Neff made an attempt to wager $100,000. But MGM staff members became suspicious of the big payment and declined to take it. Neff was instead given permission to wager $15,000 on LSU.
Red flags were raised right away by this strange betting pattern. The LSU-Alabama baseball markets were suspended in a matter of days after the MGM personnel promptly reported the bets. Bohanan was fired from his job within a week, but he was not charged with any crimes, which increased public scrutiny. Rather, he was sanctioned by the NCAA for 15 years.
Neff’s actions did not go unnoticed by federal authorities. While he was not charged with illegal betting directly, he faced serious legal trouble. Federal authorities charged Neff with obstruction of justice after he attempted to delete incriminating information about Alabama baseball from his phone. According to federal documents, Neff shared insider information with other bettors, who subsequently placed wagers on the LSU-Alabama game. LSU triumphed 8-6.
Neff, a self-described “professional gambler,” pled guilty earlier this year. He faced potential imprisonment for up to 10 years. U.S. Assistant Attorney Edward Canter painted a grim picture of Neff’s conduct in a sentencing memorandum. Canter stated, “Faced with a federal grand jury investigation, [Neff] worked to game the system. The defendant destroyed evidence, tampered with witnesses, and provided false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He did not do this once. He did it on dozens of occasions, and he did so for the greater part of a year.”
At the time of the bet, LSU was the top-ranked team in the nation. They went on to sweep Alabama in a three-game SEC series and secured the College World Series title. Notably, Alabama scratched their projected starter, Luke Holman, just an hour before the game began.