{"id":334976,"date":"2026-06-13T13:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T13:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/334976\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T13:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T13:35:08","slug":"brendan-sorsby-legal-saga-could-expand-to-include-big-12-texas-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/334976\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Sorsby Legal Saga Could Expand to Include Big 12, Texas Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe legal saga featuring Texas Tech<\/a> quarterback Brendan Sorsby<\/a> has already disrupted college sports, with a judge this week\u00a0ruling<\/a>\u00a0the 22-year-old can play despite having bet on his team\u2014heretofore a cardinal sin in sports, and one that can lead to a permanent ban in the NCAA<\/a> just like in other sports associations.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the real fireworks in court are likely yet to come.<\/p>\n

\n\tSorsby, who is\u00a0already<\/a>\u00a0a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NCAA and a defendant in a lawsuit brought by the University of Cincinnati, could become a party or key witness in other litigation that ensnares colleges, a conference, the NCAA and even the State of Texas.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the heart of the dispute is the ability of the NCAA, as a national member organization, to apply and enforce eligibility and gambling rules that protect the integrity of sports, the responsibilities of a conference to its members and a school\u2019s desire to win.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs\u00a0Sportico\u00a0has documented, many of the legal problems facing college sports in this era stem from the unwillingness<\/a> of member schools\u00a0to follow their own rules, such as when they use NIL as pay-for-play. A corollary of that problem is member schools, which want to play the best players,\u00a0cheering on<\/a>\u00a0their own athletes when they sue the NCAA to extend their eligibility past NCAA rules. Texas Tech is merely the most recent school in that category.<\/p>\n

\n\tSorsby, who has received treatment for gambling addiction and anxiety disorder and whom the NCAA claims has, directly or through intermediaries, placed thousands of sports wagers while an athlete at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech from 2022 to 2026, insists the NCAA has unfairly handled his gambling addiction with respect to his eligibility. The QB has depicted his issues as related to mental health, though it\u2019s worth noting that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) excludes compulsive gambling as a covered disability.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NCAA has raised several arguments in defense. One is that prohibitions on gambling\u00a0protect the integrity<\/a>\u00a0of athletic competitions and discourage athletes from partaking in a sports betting culture where data suggests numerous college students wager on sports. Another is that Texas law accords substantial deference to private associations in their application of membership rules.<\/p>\n

\n\tLubbock County (Texas) District Court judge Ken Curry granted Sorsby a temporary injunction that ordered the NCAA to declare him immediately eligible, though Sorsby will need to sit out the first two games of the Red Raiders\u2019 season. Judge Curry concluded that Sorsby would suffer irreparable injury, meaning an injury that monetary damages can\u2019t remedy, if he was denied \u201cthe elite coaching, training resources, camaraderie and regimen that only being a member of a Division I team can provide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NCAA has appealed the judge\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the last several days, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton wrote a letter to the Big 12<\/a> threatening legal action if the conference punishes Texas Tech for playing Sorsby. Sorsby\u2019s attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, wrote a similar letter, warning the Big 12 to comply with the court order.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnder its bylaws, the Big 12 can punish a member school for engaging in actions materially adverse to the conference. The bylaws indicate that Texas Tech would need to have an opportunity to be heard and that a supermajority vote of other member schools would be required. Available sanctions include \u201cappearance in postseason events or televised events, restrictions on revenue distributions, and limitations on recruiting or scholarships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe conference and its members could decide to not play Texas Tech, and through an amendment process, the bylaws permit the conference to suspend or even expel a school. According to ESPN, leaders of the other 15 Big 12 schools held a conference call in which all 15 were unanimously opposed to Texas Tech playing Sorsby.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Texas Tech is pushing back. In a video released Thursday night, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, head football coach Joey McGuire and other university officials defended the school\u2019s right to play Sorsby. The group insisted that the school has put in place appropriate measures to monitor Sorsby and that he continues treatment.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Legal Playbook for Suing the Big 12 and its Members<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the Big 12 takes any punitive action against the school or the player, Paxton, Texas Tech and Sorsby could all file new legal actions.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor starters, the Big 12 and its member schools are vulnerable to antitrust<\/a> claims if they team up against Texas Tech. The basic antitrust theory would be that other Big 12 member schools are competing businesses, and when they join hands to exclude Texas Tech, they\u2019re harming the marketplace for college football. Consumers, in theory, would be worse off if Texas Tech is excluded, since there would be one fewer premier football team in the market to consume as fans and viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\tBreach of contract is another possible claim. Under Big 12 bylaws, Texas Tech is owed a fair shake to make its argument before the conference acts against it. Reporting that the 15 member schools have already decided that Texas Tech shouldn\u2019t play Sorsby could be construed as prejudging Texas Tech and failing to honor the procedural safeguards guaranteed by the bylaws. Texas Tech could conceivably sue for many millions of dollars in damages if it believes the conference has acted illegally against it.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong those lines, Paxton, as the highest-ranking legal officer in Texas, could insist that Texas Tech, a public university, and its officers and students have been denied due process and other protections under the state constitution. The state has an interest in the enforcement of contracts signed by its public universities, and bylaws are contracts between conferences and member institutions. Paxton could also underscore the anxiety disorder aspects of Sorsby\u2019s health to claim a conference can\u2019t punish a school for playing an athlete with a health condition.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are also potential interference-with-contract claims. Texas Tech coaches, staff and athletes, including Sorsby, could maintain that their employment, NIL and revenue share contracts are all jeopardized and harmed by conference action against Texas Tech. Sorsby reportedly landed a $5 million NIL deal to join Texas Tech as a transfer from Cincinnati earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tFurther, broadcast and other licensing contracts are stake and could form of breach of contract and contractual interference litigation. If Texas Tech is denied contractual rights from TV, merchandise, apparel and other contracts that involve intellectual property rights, the school could sue for breach of contract and assert that the Big 12 and its members are unlawfully interfering with contracts.<\/p>\n

\n\tSorsby could also argue that the Big 12 would be in violation of Judge Curry\u2019s temporary injunction by punishing Texas Tech for playing Sorsby. Sorsby would assert that while the Big 12 and its members aren\u2019t named parties to the injunction, they are member institutions of the named defendant\u2014the NCAA\u2014and thus must follow the order. Sorsby and Texas Tech might also petition the NCAA to punish the Big 12 and other members for undermining a court order, improper conduct that the NCAA would ordinarily find problematic even if in this instance the NCAA is an adverse party to Sorsby.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Legal Playbook for the Big 12 and its Members Defending Against Litigation<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Big 12 would be armed with defenses. As attorney Tom Mars, who has represented athletes and coaches in lawsuits, has\u00a0outlined<\/a>, Texas law requires a finding that an association failed to follow its own bylaws or acted in bad faith. Those would be high benchmarks for Texas Tech to establish, so long as the conference follows its own bylaws. Given that Sorsby has admitted to betting on his team, it\u2019s difficult to imagine a court would find that the Big 12 acted in bad faith, which in law generally refers to dishonesty or fraud, by sanctioning a school for playing Sorsby.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnalogously, the Big 12 could assert that it is obligated to take action against Texas Tech, and that failure to do so would undermine its own bylaws. If member schools vote to punish Texas Tech, the conference has a fiduciary duty to act and not ignore the vote. In that same vein, if the conference fails to stop conduct that is detrimental to the conference\u2019s interests, it would have failed to adhere to its own rules.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Big 12 could also emphasize that the NCAA\u2019s court filings indicate Sorsby, who has not been charged with a crime, might have participated in criminal acts in Texas, where sports betting is barred by a criminal statute. The NCAA says that Sorsby sent thousands of dollars via Venmo or Zelle to other individuals who used proxy accounts with sports betting companies to place bets on Sorsby\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

\n\tTexas is one of the 11 states where sports betting remains illegal. It is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine, to gamble in Texas. The Big 12 could plausibly maintain it would not only undermine fair play, integrity of the game and legitimacy of competition for Sorsby to play, but taking no action would be tantamount to the conference and its educational institutions endorsing conduct that Texas law treats as a crime.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s also conceivable that other Big 12 member schools could seek court orders in their own states to block Texas Tech and\/or Sorsby from playing. There\u2019s the possibility of a state judge being sympathetic to another Big 12 school, just as a state judge was sympathetic to Sorsby and Texas Tech. Judge Curry\u2019s jurisdiction is limited to Lubbock County, too, and doesn\u2019t extend to other jurisdictions, including other states.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, in law there is a principle known as \u201ccomity\u201d (rhymes with comedy), and it refers to courts in different jurisdictions respecting court rulings issued elsewhere. That principle would likely be a major check on a judge from another state acting against him, though there are no guarantees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe only certainty at this point: Expect more legal twists and turns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legal saga featuring Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby has already disrupted college sports, with a judge this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[119692,315,14694,261,1771,100331,27,29,28,1769],"class_list":["post-334976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-antitrust","tag-big-12","tag-brendan-sorsby","tag-college-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-legal-issues","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334976","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=334976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}