The time’s come to put Texas Tech in its place | Commentary - Texas News Beep

Anyone who’s spent time on the playground knows its form of justice.

Like in a pickup basketball game, there’s no referee, so you call your own game. Step out of line, and your peers will issue the correction.

Texas Tech is getting a taste of that now.

The tumbleweed town outlaws — the unabashed poster child of NIL excess — went too far this time.

The whole trick of finding a sympathetic local judge to grant an injunction against the NCAA isn’t exactly innovative.

Using it to unshackle $5 million quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who bet on games involving the Indiana football team for whom he played, appears to be a catalyst for positive change in this unruly environment.

A good old-fashioned boycott.

Athletics directors at Georgia and Nebraska already send down a mandate to stop scheduling Texas Tech in any sport, Yahoo Sports reported.

Then, ESPN reported Monday night that the Big Ten was “expected to discuss in the upcoming days a league-wide mandate to not play Texas Tech in any sports,” Pete Thamel reported.

“True integrity means holding your program accountable when things go wrong, not buying custom legislation or running to a local courtroom to bypass the rules,” Georgia AD Josh Brooks posted on social media.

That’s the diplomatic way of putting it.

Profanity flew when Yahoo Sports asked Kansas State AD Gene Taylor for a reaction. The f-bomb level anger is understandable.

Action should be next.

Taylor also told Yahoo that ADs around the Big 12 have already discussed boycotting one of their own. The feasibility of an intra-league mutiny feels less workable than

The ruling issued Monday by Judge Ken Curry was absolutely bonkers. It prevents the NCAA from enforcing its gambling policy that barred Sorsby from playing.

He broke the Pete Rose rule.

It’s probably the one NCAA regulation that’s universally supported.

Just crazy enough that, even if the judge has zero connection to Tech, the appearance of corruption is unavoidable.

Akin to telling the IRS it can’t charge a tax cheat with fraud, there’s no conceivable reason to further neuter the husk of NCAA enforcement.

Like we said, local judges have been used for similar actions elsewhere. A local judge ruled for Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss in an eligibility case.

Certainly, felt a little dirty, but there was at least a debate where a reasonable person could see both sides of the matter.

The Sorsby case should have been black-and-white. The rule involved certainly is.

It could also wind up being the worst possible ruling for Texas Tech. The school came out in immediate support of the ruling everyone else hated.

Should this boycott spread, it would face an uncomfortable decision.

Stand by the seven-figure quarterback it bought or risk hurting every team wearing Red Raider jerseys. If conferences and ADs follow through on the threats to shun Texas Tech, the Red Raiders could be all dressed up with no date to the dance.

Of course, the NCAA appealed Monday’s opinion so the school could get bailed out by the next set of judges.

The Seventh Court of Appeals has a four-judge panel.

All four have law degrees from Texas Tech.

B-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Again, doesn’t need to be corrupt because the appearance is already unavoidable.

If justice doesn’t come from that branch of government, the playground must administer its own.

Texas Tech certainly hasn’t done itself any favors leading up to this inflection point. The school spent without restraint on a football team that went from middle of the Big 12 pack to league champ and the CFP a year ago.

Having oil billionaire Cody Campbell bankrolling an otherwise middle-of-the-road athletics department disrupts the order of things. That, paired with the well-timed Big 12 departures of Texas and Oklahoma, shot Tech to the forefront of the league and national conversation around NIL.

For months now, this column has argued the case for the free market deciding many of the perceived issues facing college sports.

The same applies here.

If the market decides to stop doing business with Texas Tech over its disregard for the most sacred of rules, so be it.

In fact, we encourage it.

If justice isn’t served in court, it should be on the playground.

The time’s come to put Texas Tech in its place.

If not, who will?

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The time’s come to put Texas Tech in its place | Commentary

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