{"id":338421,"date":"2026-06-16T14:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/338421\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T14:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T14:10:08","slug":"big-12-sues-texas-tech-university-seeking-declaratory-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/338421\/","title":{"rendered":"Big 12 sues Texas Tech University, seeking declaratory judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big 12 on Monday morning made it clear it did not want to be pushed around in court in the case surrounding\u00a0Texas Tech<\/a>\u00a0quarterback\u00a0Brendan Sorsby<\/a>. It seems to have worked.<\/p>\n

Hours before sources told ESPN Monday night that Sorsby plans to enter the NFL supplemental draft, a decision later confirmed by a university statement, the Red Raiders’ conference filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas seeking both a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to allow the league the authority to use its bylaws to potentially punish Sorsby, who admitted to betting on college sports.<\/p>\n

The filing sought: “A declaratory judgment that the First Amendment protects the Conference’s right to invoke its authority under its Bylaws to sanction [Texas Tech] related to its handling of the sports betting activity discussed in this Complaint, including if TTU fields a student-athlete in Big 12 competitions who has engaged in collegiate sports betting activity.”<\/p>\n

Sorsby’s decision should quell the conference’s concerns for the time being. Not long after the news broke Monday night, Texas Tech released a statement, quoting President Lawrence Shovanec and Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt.<\/p>\n

“When Brendan’s lawsuit resulted in the granting of a temporary injunction, we found ourselves in a difficult situation,” the statement read. “With his health and wellness as our top priority, we supported him in spite of very different perspectives and opinions. Our position was challenged by many, but our support for him never changed.”<\/p>\n

The Big 12, a league won by Texas Tech last season, was chief among those critics. Monday’s move by the conference was a legal counter to a letter from the Texas attorney general last week, which warned that any sanctions imposed by the Big 12 would be “unlawful” and countered by legal action. The Texas AG, Kenneth Paxton, is listed as a defendant, along with the chancellor, president and athletic director of Texas Tech.<\/p>\n

This all played out in the wake of a judge granting Sorsby a temporary injunction on June 8 that essentially cleared the way for him to play for Texas Tech in 2026. That came after Sorsby admitted that he broke NCAA rules by betting thousands of times, including 40 times on Indiana football while he was on that team’s roster.<\/p>\n

Before Sorsby’s decision to leave the Red Raiders, the Big 12’s presidents met Monday to discuss potential punishments with no definitive outcome.<\/p>\n

“Universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics,” the Big 12 board of directors said in a statement. “This situation is evolving with pending legal matters and the upcoming start of the football season, and the Conference hopes for a timely resolution of these issues. The Board continues to keep all options on the table.”<\/p>\n

The Big 12’s federal suit included a request for an injunction to allow the league to enforce its own rules. At the heart of this was Big 12 Bylaw 3.6, which allows the league via a supermajority vote to decide whether Texas Tech’s conduct warrants sanctions.<\/p>\n

The suit sought to bar Texas Tech from “seeking to deter, coerce, prevent, or punish the Big 12 for exercising its rights under its Bylaws to sanction TTU related to its handling of the sports betting activity discussed in this Complaint, including if TTU fields a student-athlete in Big 12 competitions who has engaged in collegiate sports betting activity.”<\/p>\n

The measures discussed by the Big 12 executive committee last week in a call included both financial penalties to the school and penalties related to eligibility. The Big 12’s filing alludes to barring the school from the conference championship game as a potential sanction.<\/p>\n

“When one Member Institution allows a student-athlete whose admitted conduct creates serious integrity concerns to compete in Conference games for Conference championships, the consequences extend beyond that institution,” the filing reads. “TTU’s decision to associate with, if not endorse, a student-athlete in this manner will affect opposing schools, student-athletes, fans, broadcast partners, Conference standings, championship eligibility, and the public reputation of The Big 12 as a whole.”<\/p>\n

The suit also acknowledged the near unanimity in the college athletics industry that Sorsby should not be allowed to play and mentioned bans on playing Texas Tech by the athletic departments at Georgia and Nebraska.<\/p>\n

“These industry reactions reflect a rational institutional judgment shared by industry experts and institutions even outside the Conference that the presence of Sorsby’s documented history in Conference games creates a cloud over the legitimacy of those games, a reputational risk for institutions that participate in them, and an unequal playing field for Member Institutions who are upholding the values of the Conference.”<\/p>\n

The suit was a highly unusual action from a conference, and it came amid a volatile situation. Big 12 athletic directors were outspoken, both publicly and in meetings, in saying they don’t want Sorsby to play. Various athletic directors in the league have used the terms “disgusted,” “disheartened,” and “sad” over the judge’s decision to grant the injunction and allow Sorsby to play.<\/p>\n

The Big 12’s legal filing Monday followed through on that tenor.<\/p>\n

“The Big 12 and its Member Institutions [apparently save TTU] have no interest in being required to endorse or even appearing to endorse unethical and indeed unlawful conduct that strikes at the heart of athletic integrity,” the filing read.<\/p>\n

Texas Tech won the Big 12 for the first time in 2025, defeating BYU 34-7 in the title game. The Red Raiders advanced to the College Football Playoff, where they lost to Oregon 23-0 in the Orange Bowl. Sorsby, who transferred from Cincinnati, another Big 12 school, was not on that team.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big 12 on Monday morning made it clear it did not want to be pushed around in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[120637,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-338421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-120637","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338421","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=338421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}