MONTGOMERY (AP) — A federal judge in Alabama has denied a request to delay a trial involving college football coach Tommy Tuberville in a civil lawsuit filed by investors seeking to recover money lost in business deals.

Tuberville, a former Auburn University and Texas Tech coach, is now the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati.

U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson this month denied Tuberville's request to delay the trial. It is scheduled to start Aug. 5.

The lawsuit alleges that a hedge fund Tuberville helped manage defrauded clients of more than $1.7 million.

Attorneys for Tuberville and his former business partner, John David Stroud, have denied the allegations.

The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that Tuberville's lawyers sought the delay because they said it would be an extreme hardship for the coach to travel to Alabama for a trial at a time when he's trying to build a new staff at Cincinnati.

"My not being present for my first season when players arrive and start preparing for the season would be an extreme hardship on them, me and the university and would be unfair to players and my coaching staff who are depending on me as head coach," Tuberville wrote in an affidavit with the motion to delay the trial.

Cincinnati's opening game is Aug. 31 at home against Purdue.