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As if the University of Alabama needed more bad news, now there are allegations of betting fraud involved in the last Friday’s baseball game between Alabama and LSU. The state of Ohio stopped betting on the game because of suspicious gambling activity during the Alabama baseball game. Now, the NCAA may be looking into the situation.
“The NCAA takes sports wagering very seriously and is committed to protecting student-athlete well-being and the integrity of competition,” they said Tuesday to AL.com. “We are aware of this issue and actively gathering additional information.”
So far, neither the SEC nor Alabama has issued statements on the situation.
NCAA prohibits gambling on any sport, especially for those participating. The issue started, according to Ronnie Johns, the chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, when one of the bets was a parlay involving the Alabama-LSU game, and another was a “large” straight-up bet on the game. Both wagered LSU would win.
Johns took a dig at Alabama by saying, “That in itself indicates that there’s definitely no suspicious activity on the part of LSU,” Johns told NOLA.com. “You don’t typically suspect the team that was picked to win the game. The problem would have been whether someone on the Alabama side was suspicious of activity.”
But Johns also said that just because it looks suspicious doesn’t mean anything illegal was happening. As a precaution, Fandual has taken down all Alabama baseball games until the issue is resolved.
Red flags may have also been raised when Alabama replaced their starting pitcher one hour before the game. This is just the latest incident involving the athletic department.
It started with basketball player Darius Miles’s arrest in January on murder charges, a potential basketball transfer, and football signee both arrested (both have been kicked off the team), an athletic staff member being arrested on domestic abuse charges on Monday, and now this.
Not a good look for Alabama baseball in this shocking gambling story.
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