{"id":328252,"date":"2026-06-08T23:10:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/328252\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:10:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:10:30","slug":"judge-reinstates-brendan-sorsby-to-texas-tech-says-qb-will-miss-just-two-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/328252\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Reinstates Brendan Sorsby To Texas Tech, Says QB Will Miss Just Two Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brendan Sorsby<\/a> won the latest round in his fight to suit up come fall. On Monday, a Texas court granted the request from Texas Tech\u2019s allegedly gambling addicted bonus baby quarterback for an injunction preventing the NCAA from barring him for the 2026 season and beyond.<\/p>\n

Sorsby transferred to the Red Raiders in January after two years at Cincinnati, a move that reportedly would net him a $6 million<\/a> NIL windfall. After word broke that he was being investigated by the NCAA for betting on a lot of things\u2014including his own team\u2019s games and balls and strikes<\/a> from Cincinnati Reds pitchers\u2014Sorsby entered a residential rehab facility for treatment for a gambling addiction. The NCAA subsequently announced he\u2019d been, essentially, banned from participating in college athletics.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sorsby asked for the injunction on the grounds that gambling is a mental illness, and the NCAA can\u2019t punish somebody for being sick. Judge Ken Curry of the 99th District Court in Lubbock seems to have mostly agreed with Sorsby\u2019s argument, throwing out the punishment.<\/p>\n

“This court finds that applicant has demonstrated that he will suffer a probable, imminent, and irreparable injury if this court does not issue this temporary injunction because he will be unable to participate as a member of Texas Tech University\u2019s 2026 football team,” Curry wrote, per a report by KCBD<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Curry didn\u2019t stop there. He also handed down his own, lesser sanctions on Sorsby for his alleged gambling offenses. Instead of an outright ban, the judge imposed a two-game suspension, assuming Sorsby follows Curry\u2019s other guidelines, which include continuing addiction treatments and keeping the NCAA updated on his care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Odd ruling, for sure. But ever since the scandal broke, the powers that be on the South Plains have been playing to the stereotype that football is religion in the region.\u00a0 Shortly after the bonus baby QB was suspended, Tech president Lawrence Schovanec<\/a> released a long and poorly written statement on TTU letterhead showing that the school was going to fight like hell to get him back on the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our values include Students and People First, Integrity and Resilience. Brendan\u2019s case calls for all three,” Schovanec wrote. “Brendan has shown great resilience. We’re committed to doing right by him\u2014by giving him the support he needs to recover from addiction and finish his collegiate athletic career.” Early in his bloated missive, the academic had cited the “five shared values” that Tech\u2019s “strength as an institution” relies on, but dropped “academic excellence” and “exemplary service” by memo\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

The NCAA released a statement following the ruling saying it “strongly disagreed<\/a>” with Curry\u2019s action.\u00a0It added: \u201cThe NCAA is committed to supporting student-athlete mental health but must continue to aggressively defend against actions that defraud college athletics and threaten competitive integrity, such as betting on one’s own sport.”<\/p>\n

An appeal is expected. If the ruling stands, Sorsby will be sidelined when the Red Raiders\u2014coming off a 12-win season, the most in the program’s history, and going into the 2025 NCAA playoffs as the four seed\u2014open the season against also-rans Abilene Christian and Oregon State. He\u2019ll be back in time for all Big 12-deciding late-fall tilts and any postseason games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not a lawyer, but if I\u2019m following this right, Curry\u2019s message to the NCAA and everybody in the sports world is that it\u2019s all fine and legal to sanction a sick athlete. But by god don\u2019t even try to make a kid in West Texas sit out a big football game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disclosure: I went to Texas Tech in the 1980s, and after not giving a rip about the place for decades, I now root real hard for all its sports teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recommended<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan Sorsby won the latest round in his fight to suit up come fall. On Monday, a Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-328252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}