Paxton claimed the Big 12 would be held liable for \u201cTexas Tech\u2019s lost football revenues, damages to its alumni contributions and damages to its recruitment, plus attorneys\u2019 fees,\u201d per Schlabach, with the total cost being \u201csubstantially more than $200 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sorsby, who transferred to Texas Tech from Cincinnati in January, was previously ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA following investigations of his gambling activity, which included him betting on Indiana football games while a member of the Hoosiers\u2019 program in 2022.<\/p>\n
However, retired Texas judge Ken Curry granted the senior quarterback a preliminary injunction<\/a> earlier this week, rendering Sorsby eligible to play in 2026.<\/p>\n Curry\u2019s ruling has proven controversial<\/a> around the sports world, with Big 12 athletic directors meeting Tuesday to express their frustration<\/a> on the matter.<\/p>\n According to Schlabach, leaders from around the Big 12 met on Thursday to discuss the possibility of using league Bylaw 3.6 to punish Texas Tech for playing Sorsby.<\/p>\n The Bylaw <\/a>grants the Big 12 authority to discipline a member institution \u201cengaged in any action or a course of conduct materially adverse to the best interests of the Conference taken as a whole\u201d and can be carried out through a supermajority vote.<\/p>\n But Paxton said exercising Bylaw 3.6 in this situation would be \u201cunlawful\u201d and \u201cexpose the Conference to substantial liability.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTexas Tech is confident the Big 12 will choose to act within the confines of the law and respect both the judicial process and its own Rules and Bylaws,\u201d Paxton wrote. \u201cHowever, should the Big 12 seek to sanction Texas Tech for acting consistent with the Order, Texas Tech will pursue all legal avenues to protect its interests and those of Texas Tech\u2019s student-athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n Yormark has confirmed that he received Paxton\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n \u201cShortly before the start of (Thursday\u2019s) Big 12 Executive Board meeting, the Conference received a letter from the Texas Attorney General\u2019s office notifying the Conference of potential legal action from Texas Tech if the Conference pursues certain actions under its Bylaws,\u201d Yormark said in a statement<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking time with our legal counsel to understand the concerns of the state and will meet again with the full Board next week. We moved forward with our Executive Board today in preparation for our full Board meeting on Monday. We had a good and informative discussion. Sentiment among the Executive Board was no different from what we heard from the (athletic directors) earlier this week. Our discussion with the full Board will determine our course of action, and all options remain on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Z5Y33J5JBJC6LOENY77LIGBPZU.JPG\")
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark speaks as part of a press conference before the Big 12 championship game between BYU and Texas Tech held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brendan Sorsby saga has added a new key figure \u2014 Texas attorney general Ken Paxton. In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169,17092],"class_list":["post-332936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-news-feed-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332936","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=332936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}