LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) \u2014 Attorneys for Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby sent a letter to Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and Chair of Board of Directors of the Big 12 Douglas Girod on Thursday giving the conference formal notice of a temporary injunction that blocks the NCAA from keeping Sorsby off the field, and warning the league against taking steps they say would undermine the court order.<\/p>\n
The letter, sent to KCBD by Sorsby\u2019s counsel, cites a June 8 injunction in Sorsby v. NCAA issued by a state district court in Lubbock. Sorsby\u2019s attorneys said the filing was intended to provide \u201cactual notice\u201d of the order under Texas rules, and they pushed back on what they called misleading media reports about the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
According to the letter, Sorsby\u2019s claims against the NCAA center on contract and related duties, alleging the NCAA failed to follow its own bylaws and reinstatement guidelines when evaluating his eligibility.<\/p>\n
The attorneys noted the judge assigned to the case reviewed evidence from both sides and found Sorsby had shown a \u201cprobable right to the relief he seeks.\u201d They said Sorsby is not challenging the NCAA\u2019s gambling rules more broadly.<\/p>\n
The letter also asserts the Big 12 is bound by the injunction because it is an entity acting \u201cin active concert or participation\u201d with the NCAA. Sorsby\u2019s attorneys warned that any attempt by the conference to circumvent the order \u2014 including sanctioning Texas Tech under Big 12 Bylaw 3.6, encouraging a boycott, or taking steps that would prevent Sorsby from participating \u2014 would violate the injunction and could place the league in contempt of court.<\/p>\n
Sorsby\u2019s lawyers further said any boycott of Texas Tech or Sorsby would violate antitrust law and expose the Big 12 and its members to significant liability. They also warned of possible claims for tortious interference with Sorsby\u2019s existing and prospective contractual relationships, including name, image and likeness agreements.<\/p>\n
The attorneys asked the Big 12 and its member schools to preserve all documents and electronic communications related to Sorsby, the injunction, or contact with the NCAA, and requested the letter be distributed to the full Big 12 board of directors.<\/p>\n
Here is the full statement, as provided:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe write on behalf of Brendan Sorsby in connection with the June 8, 2026 Temporary Injunction Order in Sorsby v. NCAA, No. DC-2026-CV-0791 (Tex. Dist.) (\u201cOrder\u201d), which is attached hereto. This letter serves to provide the Big 12 Conference (\u201cBig 12\u201d or \u201cConference\u201d) with \u201cactual notice of the order\u201d pursuant to Rule 683 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.<\/p>\n
Given some of the misleading reports in the media, it is important to emphasize that Mr. Sorsby brought breach of contract, declaratory judgment, breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing and breach of fiduciary duty claims against the NCAA based on the NCAA\u2019s failure to apply its own Bylaws, Reinstatement Guidelines and related rules and procedures when evaluating whether to reinstate Mr. Sorsby\u2019s eligibility. The Lubbock County District Court judge initially assigned to the case recused himself. A different judge, from Tarrant County\u2014nearly 300 miles away\u2014was assigned to the case. He reviewed the evidence presented by both Mr. Sorsby and the NCAA and concluded, among other things, that Mr. Sorsby \u201chas demonstrated a probable right to the relief he seeks on his claims.\u201d Order at 2. Mr. Sorsby did not, and does not, challenge the NCAA\u2019s gambling-related rules more generally.<\/p>\n
The Big 12 is bound by the Order as an entity \u201cin active concert or participation\u201d with Defendant NCAA. Tex. R. Civ. P. 683. Any attempt by the Big 12 to circumvent the Order\u2014including by sanctioning Texas Tech University (\u201cTexas Tech\u201d) under Bylaw 3.6 of the Big 12\u2019s Bylaws,1 encouraging or facilitating its member schools to boycott Texas Tech football or Texas Tech athletics more broadly or otherwise taking steps to prohibit Mr. Sorsby from \u201cpracticing, playing, or otherwise participating on Texas Tech\u2019s football team for the 2026 football season\u201d\u2014would violate and be in contempt of the Order. Order at 2.<\/p>\n
In addition, a boycott of Texas Tech or of Mr. Sorsby would be a per se violation of antitrust laws and expose the Big 12 and each of its boycotting members to substantial liability. There is no defense to a per se unlawful boycott of this type, and Mr. Sorsby will hold the Big 12 and its members fully accountable for their actions.<\/p>\n
Any such action would also expose the Big 12 to liability for tortious interference with Mr. Sorsby\u2019s existing and prospective contractual relations, including name, image and likeness deals with Texas Tech and third parties. The Big 12 would be liable for all resulting damages.<\/p>\n
What does it say about the Big 12 if it decides to lawlessly violate a court order? What message does it send to its students if its response to a lawful court order is to be contemptuous of its terms? One would expect something more honorable from the Conference and its member schools.<\/p>\n
Although we remain hopeful that litigation can be avoided, in light of the possibility that litigation may become necessary, we request that the Big 12, each Big 12 member school and their respective presidents, athletic directors, coaches, compliance officers, affiliates, employees, attorneys, independent contractors, agents and others acting on their behalf take all necessary steps to preserve, and not alter or modify, all documents and electronically stored information, including communications among or between any or all of them or with the NCAA or any representative of the NCAA, relating in any way to Mr. Sorsby or the Order.<\/p>\n
We ask that you please distribute a copy of this letter to each member of the Big 12 Board of Directors and to all persons who may possess, control, maintain or have responsibility for documents that may be relevant to this matter. Mr. Sorsby reserves all rights.”<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) \u2014 Attorneys for Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby sent a letter to Big 12 Commissioner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[315,11852,14694,261,300,30433,119012,102366,319,66,168,170,169,1771,311,1775,154,1769,874,415,299,310],"class_list":["post-332885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-big-12","tag-brandon-soliz","tag-brendan-sorsby","tag-college-football","tag-football","tag-gambling","tag-injuniction","tag-jeffrey-kessler","tag-kcbd","tag-local","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-ncaa","tag-red-raider-football","tag-red-raiders","tag-sports","tag-texas-tech","tag-texas-tech-football","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-ttu","tag-ttu-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332885","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=332885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}