Coach bet on games involving school teams
A former UNC Greensboro (UNCG) assistant women’s basketball coach was hit with a 15-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA last Thursday for gambling on sporting events, including games played by the UNCG men’s basketball team.
Collins was fired in May of last year, when the violations were discovered.
Although neither the school nor the NCAA named the coach, the Greensboro News & Record identified him as Phil Collins. Collins was fired in May of last year, when the violations were discovered.
An investigation into Collins’ gambling began in May 2018 after the former director of basketball operations, Brooke Long, informed women’s basketball head coach Trina Patterson of Collins’ actions.
The investigation found that Collins bet on at least four games and ten parlays, all of which involved his school’s men’s basketball team. The men’s team, though, had nothing to do with Collins’ betting.
He admitted to investigators that he lost between $20,000 and $30,000, but did not hand over his credit card statements or online gambling history. The NCAA said that the online portion of his betting was relatively minor.
UNCG punished for dropping the ball
UNC Greensboro was also fined $15,000 and put on probation for three years. Seven staff members failed to report Collins’ gambling activities, even though they knew about them. This inability to properly keep the athletic department in compliance with NCAA regulations resulted in the probation.
The school is taking steps to make sure it does better in the future. It has said that a compliance job that had been a temporary position will now be full-time. Additionally, everyone in the compliance department will receive more training about NCAA rules. In a statement, UNC Greensboro athletic director Kim Record indicated that:
We make operating with the highest standards of compliance and integrity the cornerstone of our culture.
“We will always choose the path that aligns to our guiding principles: student-athlete well-being, teamwork, responsibility, integrity, development and excellence,” she added.
Show-cause penalty almost a coaching death sentence
Show-cause is considered the harshest penalty a coach can receive. Most do not end up coaching in college again, even after the show-cause term is up, as schools do not want to risk taking on a coach who has committed serious rules violations. Typically, the ones who do find work have a long track record of success prior to the penalty.