College Athletics Will Be Changed by the Brendan Sorsby Case
On June 8, college athletics was changed after a judge granted Brendan Sorsby a temporary injunction against the NCAA. Sorsby admitted to placing thousands of bets over his four-year career, including bets on his own team when he was redshirted at Indiana.
That injunction shook the core of college athletics, from the fans to players and even former players. The precedent has been changed about players who bet on games, as every other player has been either made ineligible for a season or lose all their eligibility and are unable to suit up for their college.
For reference, in 2023, a handful of Iowa State football players and Iowa Hawkeyes got caught in a gambling sting and pretty much had their college careers ended, no matter the result of their court cases. Most of them got their charges dropped for various reasons, but the NCAA was reluctant to give back their eligibility.
That case set the modern precedent for college athletes betting as a whole, as the NCAA was adamant that they would take players' eligibility if they did bet, no matter the amount. An Iowa wrestler, Nelson Brands, also a part of that gambling sting, got banned for a $5 bet and never wrestled at the college level again.
Now, fast-forward to the 2026 college football offseason, and the talk has been on the Brendan Sorsby case. As noted earlier, Sorsby has placed thousands of bets over the course of his college career, including 40 on Indiana when he was on the roster. In the offseason, he transferred from Cincinnati to Texas Tech, and the news of his gambling broke out shortly after the transfer.
With the precedent set in previous examples, the NCAA subsequently ruled Sorsby permanently ineligible. Sorsby then went to court in Lubbock, Texas, to determine what his future would be. The obvious answer was that the suspension from the NCAA would be upheld, and no further issues would spark from this, because he bet on games.
Over the 100 or so years of professional sport, being an athlete in a sport and betting on games have been severely shunned. Look at Pete Rose, the Black Sox in the 1919 World Series, and many other cases as such. They are talked about like black sheep in their respective worlds.
For Sorsby, however, he was granted a temporary injunction by a Lubbock judge and will only miss the first two games of the Texas Tech season. The reason, the suspension would cause Sorsby to suffer "probable, imminent, and irreparable injury," and Sorsby's defense team argued that the NCAA should have considered his mental health conditions.
They also added that the NCAA's relationship with gambling companies negatively impacted Sorsby. The NCAA filed an appeal after the result and the fallout has begun around the college football landscape.
To make matters better for Sorsby, the hearing for his case will now take place on Feb. 8, 2027, according to a Texas Court online record. That date is two weeks after the College Football Playoff National Championship.
So, outside of the first two games of the season, Sorsby will be able to actively play a sport that he has been on record saying he has bet on. That is very concerning for college athletics as a whole, as the NCAA has potentially lost its ability to enforce its rules, even if they are as set in stone as athletes not being allowed to bet on sports.
The fallout from the injunction has left college football scrambling, as programs such as Nebraska and Georgia have stated they won't play Texas Tech in any sport. Leagues such as the Big 10 and Big 12, which is the league Texas Tech is in, have been in talks about not scheduling the Red Raiders as well. Kansas State Athletic Director Gene Taylor gave his view on the situation to ESPN.
"A sad day for not only college athletics, but college sports in general," Taylor said to ESPN. "I give him credit for admitting and seeking help for his addiction, but to put him back in a high-profile, stressful role with that type of an issue is not helping him. But I am not an addiction professional, so what do I know."
The fallout from this case has yet to fully commence, but the consequences from the ruling will have an impact on college athletics as a whole and call into question whether or not games will be rigged or not.
It is still the offseason, and we are a couple of months away from the first college football games, but if Sorsby steps on the field as the starting quarterback for Texas Tech in their third game, the foundation of the NCAA will be cracked even further and the game on the field will always be in question.
"I think it's important that we as institutions fight for the integrity of the game," Georgia Athletic Director Josh Brooks said to ESPN. "We cannot continue to let state courts dictate eligibility. We must stand up for what's right. This isn't right. If we can't agree on this, I don't know what we can agree on."
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