NCAA, Big 12 Go to Court Against Texas Tech, Seeking to Ensure Ability to Handle Sorsby Eligibility

The NCAA asked a Texas appeals court Monday to stay a temporary injunction that cleared the way for Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby to play this fall despite being declared ineligible for gambling while the Big 12 Conference filed a federal lawsuit warning the Texas attorney general to stay out of a case that has rattled college sports.

The filings in separate courts raised the stakes in the fight over whether Sorsby can play and who makes that decision.

In documents filed with the Court of Appeals for the Seventh District of Texas at Amarillo, the NCAA asked for an emergency motion to stay the June 8 injunction granted by a Lubbock County court in favor of Sorsby, who has admitted he has a gambling addiction and has made thousands of bets, included some on his own team when he was a freshman at Indiana.

The NCAA also asked for a resolution of the case by Aug. 28, which it said would spare the potential disruption of a ruling after Texas Tech begins its season on Sept. 5. The NCAA has long banned players for gambling but Texas Tech says Sorsby, who transferred there in January after the past two seasons at Cincinnati, would be better off on the team for his mental health and well being.

"The trial court's temporary injunction sweeps beyond anything Texas law permits," attorneys for the NCAA wrote. "It undermines the integrity of college sports, rewrites member-adopted rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, immunizes Brendan Sorsby from discipline for admitted and serial violations of NCAA anti-gambling rules, incentivizes a run on courthouses across the country to challenge even the most obvious and straightforward student-athlete eligibility decisions and demolishes the status quo."

The injunction last week from Judge Ken Curry prevents the NCAA from being able to block the Sorsby's eligibility for what will be his final college season with a team among the favorites to win the Big 12 and return to the College Football Playoff for a second consecutive season.

The Big 12, meanwhile, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Dallas seeking a court order backing its ability to use its bylaws for potential punishment against Sorsby. So far, the Big 12 has not weighed in on the Sorsby case but last week the Texas attorney general's office warned the league of potential legal action from Texas Tech for any sanctions against the school or Sorsby.

The Big 12 filing names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race this fall, as well as Texas Tech leadership, including its president, chancellor and athletic director. It accused them of trying to prevent the Big 12 from exercising its own rules the school itself agreed to long ago.

"An athlete with an extensive, documented history of wagering on intercollegiate athletic contests — especially his own team's games — presents a reputational and integrity risk to the conference and its championship competition that the conference has both the right and the responsibility to address," attorneys for the Big 12 wrote. "The Conference is not required to accept that risk on behalf of its fifteen other member Institutions, their student-athletes, their fans and its commercial partners. And no government official has the power to compel it to do so."

The Big 12 board of directors, made up of presidents and chancellors from the league's 16 schools, was expected to meet Monday.

Court records show that Sorsby has acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets on pro and college sports totaling at least $90,000 during his time at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech. That included 40 bets on Indiana while he was a freshman there in 2022, though none on any of the games in which he played for 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. At least two schools, Nebraska in the Big Ten and Georgia in the SEC, have indicated they will not schedule Texas Tech.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond last week called on the Big 12 to suspend Sorsby, and said claims by the Texas AG's office that sanctions against Texas Tech would violate antitrust laws are meritless. The Kansas attorney general, Kris Kobach, said Monday his office would provide support to the Big 12 in any legal dispute with Paxton's office.