Add another layer to the Brendan Sorsby saga and the overall drama surrounding college sports this week.
On Monday, the Big 12 filed a 47-page legal complaint against Texas Tech, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and multiple TTU officials in an effort to preserve its authority to sanction the Red Raiders if they decide to play Sorsby.
The complaint comes one week after a Texas judge granted Sorsby a preliminary injunction preventing the NCAA from deeming him ineligible for violating its rules on sports gambling. Sorsby has admitted to wagering approximately $90,000 on college and professional sports, including bets involving Indiana football when he was a freshman on the team in 2022. He was previously denied eligibility by the NCAA and lost an appeal for reinstatement.
In the complaint, the Big 12 is asking a federal judge to allow it to take action against Texas Tech without interference from Paxton, who sent a letter to leaders of the conference last week warning them against sanctioning TTU following the preliminary injunction.
“The Big 12 is concerned with TTU’s stated plans — communicated by TTU to the Conference and now backed by independent threats from the Attorney General — to field a student-athlete in Conference competitions despite admitted wagering conduct that is both illegal and in direct conflict with the ethical standards and public trust on which Big 12 competition depends,” the complaint says.
The filing makes clear the Big 12’s intention to penalize TTU if the school were to play Sorsby. No vote on sanctions has taken place thus far, but as the filing states, “some of the potential sanctions the Board could consider under the Bylaws include monetary sanctions and/or a ban on competing in the Big 12 Championship Game.”
The complaint also reveals that presidents and athletic directors across the league have requested that TTU not play Sorsby, but the university has refused. Athletic officials at the University of Georgia and the University of Nebraska have also reportedly instructed their coaches not to schedule TTU in any sport. “In an industry that rarely agrees on anything, there is finally an issue that everyone seems to agree on (other than TTU and the Attorney General): universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics,” the filing says.
Meanwhile, the Protect College Sports Act, the bipartisan bill aimed at bringing stability to college sports, is scheduled for a markup in the U.S. Senate on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Thursday. The NCAA sent a memo to Division I commissioners a few days ago asserting that passage of the PCSA would empower the NCAA to apply ineligibility to Sorsby — a result that most people outside of Lubbock appear in favor of.
Notably, Cody Campbell, the billionaire who’s reshaped TTU athletics, has been a vocal supporter of the PCSA.
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