The Texas attorney general\u2019s office warned the Big 12 on Thursday of potential legal action from Texas Tech as the conference considers what to do after Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby won a court order restoring his eligibility and setting aside his ban by the NCAA for gambling on pro and college sports.<\/p>\n
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said the notice came shortly before the start of the league\u2019s executive board meeting to discuss its options in the Sorsby situation.<\/p>\n
The temporary injunction issued Monday by a Texas district court prevents the NCAA from enforcing its permanent ban of Sorsby, a decision that sent shock waves across college sports. The transfer QB had been ruled ineligible after he acknowledged years of gambling that included at least 40 bets on his own team while he was a freshman at Indiana. Texas Tech said he has completed a month-long inpatient treatment program and will continue to receive treatment and support while being monitored.<\/p>\n
What was the AG\u2019s warning to the Big 12?<\/p>\n
The letter from the Texas AG\u2019s office was addressed to Yormark and Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod, the chairman of the Big 12 board of directors. It specifically references a conference bylaw that, with a supermajority vote, could result in sanctioning a school that has \u201cengaged in any action or a course of conduct materially adverse to the best interests of the conference taken as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
The AG\u2019s office said any sanctions against Texas Tech for \u201cacting consistent\u201d with the district court injunction \u201cwould be a per se violation of federal and state antitrust laws \u2014 a naked horizontal agreement among competitors to disadvantage Texas Tech by cutting off access to the resources it needs to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond any antitrust exposure, the letter said, the Big 12 would also face liability for \u201cbreach of contract and tortious interference\u201d for any sanction that results in the alteration of Texas Tech\u2019s scheduled games.<\/p>\n
The letter was signed by Thomas York, chief of the antitrust division, and Kimberly Gdula, chief of the litigation division. The attorney general, Ken Paxton, is the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Texas this fall.<\/p>\n
Yormark said the conference is taking time with its legal counsel to understand the concerns of the state.<\/p>\n
There were also multiple reports that Jeffrey Kessler, who represents Sorsby in his case against the NCAA, sent a separate and similar letter Thursday to the Big 12. That letter reportedly referenced the same Big 12 bylaw and warned the league that it is bound by the court\u2019s ruling this week.<\/p>\n
The NCAA has said it will appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas, seeking an accelerated decision to overturn the injunction and again make Sorsby ineligible.<\/p>\n
Big 12 considering all options<\/p>\n
Because NCAA rules call for a permanent loss of eligibility for any player who wagers on his own team, the judge\u2019s decision brought sharp criticism from college sports leadership, including in Texas Tech\u2019s own league. The executive board met as planned Thursday in preparation for a meeting Monday of the Big 12\u2019s full board of directors, which is made up of presidents and chancellors from the league\u2019s 16 schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a good and informative discussion. Sentiment among the executive board was no different from what we heard from the ADs earlier this week,\u201d Yormark said. \u201cOur discussion with the full board will determine our course of action, and all options remain on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board meeting came two days after a conference call among Big 12 athletic directors, who expressed strong opposition to Sorsby playing for the Red Raiders in his final college season. Some of those ADs even suggested not playing Texas Tech if he does.<\/p>\n
Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech in January for a reported multimillion-dollar deal after playing the past two seasons at Cincinnati, another Big 12 school. The Texas native first spent two seasons at Indiana.<\/p>\n
Warning from big booster<\/p>\n
The threat of legal action came one day after Texas Tech billionaire booster and regents chair Cody Campbell mentioned that possibility during a podcast appearance with Dan Dakich. Campbell was addressing reports of schools talking about boycotting the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when the Big Ten or the K-State AD comes out and says we\u2019ve all gotten together, and we\u2019ve talked about how we\u2019re not going to play Tech because guess what? That\u2019s collusion,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThat\u2019s an antitrust violation. So have fun with that one, guys. You can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Campbell, a former offensive lineman at the school, has been a key figure in helping Texas Tech land top players over the past two years.<\/p>\n
The Red Raiders, with one of college football\u2019s most expensive rosters, won their first Big 12 title last season. They set a school record with 12 wins and made it to the 12-team College Football Playoff. Sorsby was brought in to be the starting quarterback after hometown favorite Behren Morton exhausted his eligibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas attorney general\u2019s office warned the Big 12 on Thursday of potential legal action from Texas Tech…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-333077","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\/333077","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=333077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}