there was no way to resolve all the legal matters <\/a>before next week\u2019s supplemental draft deadline, thus forcing the issue. The Red Raiders didn\u2019t send\u00a0Sorsby away empty-handed. The chairman of Tech\u2019s regents also noted the school wouldn\u2019t seek return of the reported $5 million he\u2019s owed.<\/p>\nKinda makes walking away easier, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
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Seems to me it\u2019d have been cleaner if Tech had simply declared\u00a0Sorsby ineligible no matter what the judge ruled. Schools and athletic programs do it all the time. Best interests of the university. If Sorsby wanted to sue, let him. No court could make a head coach start a quarterback he doesn\u2019t want. Tech would have retained its honor and avoided all the fuss.<\/p>\n
Tech officials insisted they were only trying to do right by\u00a0Sorsby in light of his treatment for a gambling addiction. Commendable, I suppose, though I\u2019m not sure how many people actually believed it. We\u2019re not predisposed to believe what anyone tells us anymore, especially if you stand to benefit from your position.<\/p>\n
The thing is, there was no way the Red Raiders could win this one. Let\u2019s say they\u2019d stuck to their guns and fought it out in court and on the field. Let\u2019s say\u00a0Sorsby would have transformed their odds like Fernando Mendoza did last season for Indiana and won it all.<\/p>\n
Do you really think Tech would be hailed as another made-for-prime-time underdog?<\/p>\n
Every win with\u00a0Sorsby at quarterback would come with a public relations beating. Think Miami and Oklahoma in the ’80s, only worse.<\/p>\n
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The way it works for universities in their support for athletic programs is that the better they play, the higher enrollment rises. Fees go up, too. Revenues stream in.<\/p>\n
But who wants to go to a school where everyone else hates you, and not because you win? How does that image square with the desires of potential sponsors and advertisers?<\/p>\n
Not to mention what happens when the super conferences come, and they remember how you skirted the rules? The SEC and Big Ten talked about boycotting Tech as it was. I don\u2019t think they\u2019d feel any better about making you a member of the family.<\/p>\n
Even if there\u2019s a new billionaire dynamic within the Red Raiders \u2014 one that has made them relevant nationally while alienating college sports\u2019 bluebloods, who like looking down their noses at the nouveau riche \u2014 the rank and file remain the same. They want to win, but not at any price.<\/p>\n
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The Brendan\u00a0Sorsby saga earned them a black eye in the last week, but in the end, they got it right. This won\u2019t be forgotten, but neither will it be a constant reminder. On college football\u2019s road to perdition, you keep your eye on the rearview mirror at your own peril.<\/p>\n
Twitter\/X: @KSherringtonDMN<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby watches the second half of an NCAA college basketball game between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2353,27,29,28,89414,88145],"class_list":["post-339054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-commentary","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tp-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-tp-colleges"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339054","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=339054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}