Transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby will not play for Texas Tech this fall and instead plans to enter the NFL supplemental draft, ending an unprecedented legal fight over the college eligibility of a player who had acknowledged betting on college and pro sports, including some wagers on his own team while at Indiana four years ago.
Cody Campbell, the billionaire booster who is chairman of the Texas Tech regents, wrote in an open letter Monday night that Sorsby will not be part of the team.
“This decision was made with Brendan and his family and is purely an output of practical analysis of the situation,” Campbell wrote. “Brendan and Texas Tech stand on very solid and legitimate legal ground, but he faces a June 22nd deadline to be eligible to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, and there is no practical way to resolve all the various pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date. This is the only viable and fair path for Brendan and his future, as well as for his teammates, and our university.”
That came exactly one week before the deadline for Sorsby to apply for the supplemental draft.
It was also one week after Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA, an order that sent shockwaves through college sports because one of the NCAA’s foundational rules, and one found in many professional sports as well, is the ability to ban players for gambling — especially those wagering on games involving their own team.
All the legal wrangling had raised the stakes in the fight over whether Sorsby could play and who would decide that.
Sorsby's decision came on the same day the NCAA and Big 12 Conference had filings in separate courts challenging a temporary injunction that had cleared the way for the 22-year-old quarterback to play despite being declared ineligible after he admitted making thousands of bets worth at least $90,000 while in college. Those included at least 40 bets on Indiana while he was a freshman there in 2022, though none on the game in which he played for the Hoosiers that season.
Sorsby didn't play a down for the defending Big 12 champion Red Raiders. He transferred to Texas Tech in January for a reported multimillion-dollar deal after playing the past two seasons at Cincinnati, another Big 12 school. The Texas native was at Indiana in 2022 and 2023.
Campbell, while not revealing any figures, said Texas Tech will not seek the return of any payments already made to Sorsby through his NIL agreements with the university.
RELATED STORY | NCAA accuses DraftKings of trademark infringement in March Madness marketing
Sorsby, not Texas Tech, filed the suit against the NCAA that resulted in the injunction. But school officials repeatedly said that for his mental health and well-being he would be better off on the team.
“I am grateful for the support from my family, my Tech coaching staff, teammates, the community, and so many others who have encouraged me to address and learn more about this important issue,” Sorsby wrote in a social media post Monday night. “As my journey continues, I remain fully committed to and focused on being the best I can be, both on and off the field.”
Court testimony revealed Sorsby has a diagnosed addiction and anxiety-driven compulsion. He recently completed a monthlong stay in a residential treatment program in Arizona that he entered after Texas Tech was notified in April about an NCAA investigation into his gambling activity.
“I pray that he can stay on his path to recovery,” Campbell wrote. “Texas Tech will continue to provide the support and recovery resources Brendan requires on this journey.”
Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec and athletic director Kirby Hocutt echoed that in a joint statement.
“When Brendan’s lawsuit resulted in the granting of a temporary injunction, we found ourselves in a difficult situation. With his health and wellness as our top priority, we supported him in spite of very different perspectives and opinions. Our position was challenged by many but our support for him never changed," they wrote.
The ruling last week by Judge Ken Curry prevented the NCAA from being able to block the QB's eligibility for what would have been his final college season. Tech is among the favorites to win the Big 12 and return to the College Football Playoff for a second consecutive season.
“It’s been a challenging week for both our Conference and the college athletics landscape," Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said in a statement Tuesday. "The Big 12 looks forward to moving ahead as 16 (schools) strong. We wish Brendan Sorsby success in his future endeavors.”
The NCAA's appeal
In documents filed Monday with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo, the NCAA had asked for an emergency motion to stay the June 8 injunction. The NCAA also asked for a resolution of the case before the start of Texas Tech's season. The trial was scheduled for February, well after the season ends.
Attorneys for the NCAA wrote that the trial court’s temporary injunction "undermines the integrity of college sports, rewrites member-adopted rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, immunizes Brendan Sorsby from discipline for admitted and serial violations of NCAA anti-gambling rules, incentivizes a run on courthouses across the country to challenge even the most obvious and straightforward student-athlete eligibility decisions and demolishes the status quo.”
Big 12 goes to federal court
The Big 12, meanwhile, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Dallas seeking a court order backing its ability to use its bylaws for possible sanctions against Texas Tech if Sorsby had played this season. Last week, the Texas attorney general’s office warned the league of potential legal action from Texas Tech for any such sanctions.
RELATED STORY | 6 players accused of throwing games, gambling ties lose NCAA eligibility
The Big 12 filing names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race this fall, as well as Texas Tech leadership, including its president, chancellor and athletic director. It accused them of trying to prevent the Big 12 from exercising its own rules the school itself agreed to long ago. Sorsby wasn’t named as a defendant.
“An athlete with an extensive, documented history of wagering on intercollegiate athletic contests — especially his own team’s games — presents a reputational and integrity risk to the conference and its championship competition that the conference has both the right and the responsibility to address,” attorneys for the Big 12 wrote. “The conference is not required to accept that risk on behalf of its 15 other member Institutions, their student-athletes, their fans and its commercial partners. And no government official has the power to compel it to do so.”
That came before a meeting Monday of the Big 12 board of directors, which is made up of presidents and chancellors from the league’s 16 schools.
In a statement by the board after that meeting, the Big 12 said it was committed to protecting the competitive integrity of conference competition and that, "Universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics.”
Big 12 athletic directors in a conference call with Yormark last week expressed opposition to Sorsby playing for the Red Raiders this season, and some even suggested maybe not playing Texas Tech if he had.
