Brendan Sorsby has been granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA that could clear the way for him to play for Texas Tech this fall, even after the transfer quarterback was declared ineligible for wagering on college sports. Some of the bets were made on his own team while at Indiana.
The ruling Monday by Judge Ken Curry immediately prevents the NCAA from being able to block Sorsby’s eligibility for what will be his final college season.
Sorsby will still miss the first two games, which was a penalty that had been proposed by his attorneys.
Curry’s ruling came a week after a two-hour hearing in the 99th District Court in Lubbock County, where Texas Tech is located.
The NCAA can appeal to a higher court in Texas, though there was no immediate word on if or when that would happen, or the possible timeline for a different ruling. Texas Tech is nearly three months from its season opener Sept. 5 at home against Abilene Christian.
In a statement, the NCAA said it strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling and “is deeply concerned about the damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications of this outcome — which undermines and corrupts the integrity of sports.”
A significant setback against the NCAA
NCAA attorney Taylor Askew had said during the hearing that allowing Sorsby to play another college season would provide “reputable harm” to the governing body.
“Saying the NCAA is now the first league in America that allows you, without punishment, to bet on its own contests, that’s a reputable harm to the NCAA,” Askew told the court. “This would be the first league in America that does that. … We should not say for the first time serial gambling is OK.”
Court records show that Sorsby has acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets totaling at least $90,000 during his time at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech. That included 40 bets on Indiana while a freshman in 2022, though none on any of the games he played in with the Hoosiers.
While some guidelines for penalties related to gambling have changed in recent years, NCAA rules still call for a permanent loss of eligibility for any player who wagered on his own team.
Sorsby spent two seasons at Indiana before the past two at Cincinnati.
The Texas native transferred in January to Texas Tech for a reported multimillion-dollar deal. The Red Raiders brought him in to be the starting quarterback when trying to defend their first Big 12 Conference title and make the College Football Playoff for the second year in a row.
What led to the NCAA investigation
Court filings revealed that on March 11 the NCAA received a tip about Sorsby’s gambling activity from an online gambling book, which had been informed by law enforcement. Texas Tech was notified April 14 that an investigation was underway by the NCAA.
Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who negotiated the House settlement against the NCAA and now represents Sorsby, told the court that the 22-year-old quarterback has a diagnosed addiction and anxiety-driven compulsion.
Sorsby recently completed a monthlong stay in a residential treatment program in Arizona that he entered after the start of the NCAA’s investigation.
Kessler said, according to a clinician who treated Sorsby, that not allowing the quarterback to play would hurt his mental health and impede the progress of his recovery.
The NCAA in its statement Monday said it is “committed to supporting student-athlete mental health but must continue to aggressively defend against actions that defraud college athletics and threaten competitive integrity, such as betting on one’s own sport.”
The lawsuit and NCAA appeals
The injunction Monday came in Sorsby’s lawsuit filed May 18 against the NCAA seeking the restoration of his eligibility. That case was initially assigned to District Judge Phillip Hays, a Lubbock native and Texas Tech graduate who later recused himself. Curry is a retired judge from Tarrant County.
Since the filing of that lawsuit, the NCAA has twice denied Texas Tech’s petition to restore the quarterback’s eligibility.
When the school on May 26 revealed the first denial and its intent to appeal, university president Lawrence Schovanec wrote in a letter to the Texas Tech community that the school felt “the NCAA’s ruling should be reversed or modified.”
Texas Tech ruled Sorsby ineligible May 18, the same day he filed his lawsuit. Tech had to do that to be able to pursue a request for his reinstatement that it submitted to the NCAA the following day. That was first denied May 22, and the school’s appeal was rejected last week.
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
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