One day before the office of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton released a letter threatening legal action against the Big 12 conference if it moved to sanction Texas Tech over quarterback Brendan Sorsby\u2019s eligibility saga, Texas Tech board of regents chair and billionaire booster Cody Campbell donated $274,300 in support of Paxton\u2019s U.S. Senate campaign.<\/p>\n
According to a recent batch of campaign finance records<\/a> filed to the Federal Election Committee, Campbell made the donation on June 10 to Paxton Victory, a joint fundraising committee for Paxton\u2019s ongoing run for Senate as the Texas Republican nominee. On June 11, Paxton\u2019s attorney general office sent a formal letter to the Big 12 Conference on behalf of Texas Tech University stating any penalties imposed by the Big 12 regarding Sorsby would be considered \u201cunlawful\u201d and met with legal action.<\/p>\n Under Texas state law, the attorney general represents Texas Tech University in court and legal proceedings, and the university\u2019s general counsel interacts with the attorney general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Campbell declined to comment on the matter. The Texas attorney general office and Paxton\u2019s Senate campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Texas Tech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n The Texas Tribune first reported the news of Campbell\u2019s donation<\/a> on Wednesday night. Additional campaign finance records show that Campbell regularly donates to Republican politics nationally and in Texas. This includes multiple donations to Wesley Hunt and his campaign for the same U.S. Senate seat, as well as to incumbent Texas senator John Cornyn; Hunt and Cornyn were Paxton\u2019s opponents in the Republican primary race, which Paxton won in March.<\/p>\n Campbell made prior donations to Paxton\u2019s Senate campaign dating back to 2025 and to Paxton in his capacity as attorney general. The June 10 donation to Paxton\u2019s Senate campaign represents Campbell\u2019s largest one-time amount given toward a state-level politician dating back to 2016, according to campaign finance databases.<\/p>\n The June 11 letter from Paxton\u2019s state office<\/a> came days after Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction by a Texas state court that briefly reinstated his athletic eligibility for the 2026 college football season. The injunction overruled the NCAA, which deemed Sorsby permanently ineligible this spring for committing thousands of gambling violations during his college career, including betting on his own team as a member of Indiana in 2022.<\/p>\n The court\u2019s decision was met with immediate and intense backlash across college sports, with much of the ire directed at Texas Tech. Many urged the Big 12, of which Texas Tech is a member, to levy its own sanctions against Sorsby and\/or Tech if it elected to play the quarterback this upcoming season.<\/p>\n Texas Tech was not involved in Sorsby\u2019s lawsuit against the NCAA that was granted a temporary injunction, but Tech officials, including Campbell, were publicly supportive of Sorsby\u2019s eligibility battle.<\/p>\n On June 15, the Big 12 filed a federal lawsuit against Paxton, Texas Tech, and university administrators, seeking a declaratory judgment that the conference could sanction Texas Tech under its league bylaws, and that those bylaws were protected by the First Amendment \u2014 a direct response to Paxton\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n Later that same day, it was announced that Sorsby was leaving the Red Raiders to focus on the NFL.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision was made with Brendan and his family and is purely an output of practical analysis of the situation,\u201d Campbell wrote in a June 15 statement<\/a>. \u201cBrendan and Texas Tech stand on very solid and legitimate legal ground, but he faces a June 22nd deadline to be eligible to enter the NFL\u2019s supplemental draft, and there is no practical way to resolve all the various pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date. This is the only viable and fair path for Brendan and his future, as well as for his teammates, and our university.\u201d<\/p>\n The timing and nature of the Big 12\u2019s lawsuit against Paxton and Texas Tech contributed to the end of Sorsby\u2019s college football career, according to previous reporting by The Athletic<\/a>.\u00a0 Numerous legal experts argued that Paxton\u2019s letter bolstered the Big 12\u2019s argument on First Amendment grounds, allowing the league to file in federal jurisdiction as opposed to another Texas state court.<\/p>\n \u201c(The Paxton letter) was a misstep of epic proportions to say the least because without that letter, there\u2019s no (Big 12) lawsuit,\u201d sports attorney Tom Mars told The Athletic.<\/p>\n The Big 12\u2019s lawsuit remains active and ongoing.<\/p>\n