{"id":655595,"date":"2026-05-21T02:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/655595\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T02:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T02:21:08","slug":"judge-in-brendan-sorsby-case-recuses-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/655595\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge in Brendan Sorsby case recuses himself"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, like all civil litigants, would like to find some home cooking in court. As it turns out, the cooking in Sorsby\u2019s case was a little too close to home.<\/p>\n<p>As reported by Ryan Autollo of Bloomberg, Judge Phillip Hays <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/litigation\/texas-judge-recuses-in-texas-tech-quarterbacks-ncaa-lawsuit?context=search&amp;index=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">has recused himself<\/a> from Sorsby\u2019s lawsuit against the NCAA. Sorsby seeks the restoration of his college eligibility at Texas Tech.<\/p>\n<p>The one-page order didn\u2019t give a reason for the judge\u2019s decision to step down. Hays holds a pair of degrees from Texas Tech, including a law degree.<\/p>\n<p>The next judge will be selected by Ana Estevez, the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.txcourts.gov\/9ajr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">presiding judge in the ninth administrative judicial region<\/a>, which includes Lubbock County \u2014 where the suit was filed and where Texas Tech is located. The key question will be whether the selected judge comes from a county with residents who would be partial to the interests of Texas Tech. If so, that judge will have a built-in bias based on his or her interest in being re-elected.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s one of the built-in benefits of suing the NCAA in state court. More often than not, the state-court judge will be inclined to exercise discretion in a way that helps, not hurts, the institution with a direct interest in the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>For Texas Tech, there\u2019s a clear interest in Sorsby\u2019s case. If he regains his availability, he\u2019ll be able to play for Texas Tech in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Sorsby\u2019s lawsuit seeks a hearing on his motion for a preliminary injunction by June 15. If he doesn\u2019t regain his eligibility, he\u2019ll have until June 22 to apply for the NFL\u2019s supplemental draft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, like all civil litigants, would like to find some home cooking in court.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-655595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}