Texas Tech University quarterback Brendan Sorsby will not play in the upcoming college football season, a school official said Monday, after the Big 12 Conference sued the university to keep Sorsby off the field amid concerns over improper betting.
Texas Tech Regent Chair Cody Campbell announced Sorsby’s departure Monday evening as multiple state attorneys general backed the Big 12 after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned he would take legal action if Texas Tech was sanctioned for fielding Sorsby.
The Big 12 filed its lawsuit in federal court in Dallas on Sunday, seeking to clear the way for sanctions against Texas Tech if its team plays Sorsby this fall. The 22-year-old admitted to placing thousands of sports bets, including wagers on his own team’s games.
Campbell said Sorsby’s decision was a result of the upcoming deadline to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, not because of legal concerns.
“Brendan 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’s supplemental draft,” Campbell said in his statement, “and there is no practical way to resolve all the various pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date.”
Conference officials argued that if Sorsby plays, public confidence in Big 12 competition would be undermined.
The conference sued Paxton, Texas Tech University, the Texas Tech University System, Chancellor Brandon Creighton, Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec and athletic director Kirby Hocutt.
“The Big 12 and its Member Institutions … have no interest in being required to endorse or even appearing to endorse unethical and indeed unlawful conduct that strikes at the heart of athletic integrity,” the conference wrote in its complaint, arguing that Paxton and Texas Tech are infringing on the conference’s First Amendment right to enforce its bylaws.
The Tribune reached out to Paxton’s office, Texas Tech and the Big 12 for comment.
The NCAA banned Sorsby from participating in football after court filings showed the student athlete placed at least $90,000 in sports bets while attending Texas Tech and playing football at two other universities. He placed bets on his own team while playing at Indiana, and when in Texas, where sports betting is illegal, sent money to people in other states to bet on his behalf.
Sorsby sued to regain his eligibility. Last week, a state district judge in Lubbock blocked the NCAA from prohibiting Sorsby from playing most of the upcoming season. The judge’s order stipulates Sorsby must continue treatment for his gambling disorder and sit out the first two games of the season. The NCAA is appealing.
The judge set a Feb. 8 trial on the matter, after the football season concludes.
The ruling sparked criticism from officials at other universities. The Big 12 alleged in its lawsuit that athletic officials in the University of Georgia and the University of Nebraska sent department-wide memos instructing coaches and staff not to schedule Texas Tech in any sport and said the schools may try to cancel already scheduled match ups.
Paxton’s office threatened legal action in the matter. In a letter sent Thursday on behalf of Texas Tech, the attorney general’s office warned the Big 12 that any effort to “disadvantage” the university would be illegal.
“The total exposure — for both the Big 12 and its members, jointly and severally — will be substantially more than $200 million,” said the letter signed by Thomas York, chief of the agency’s antitrust division.
The letter, first reported by The Athletic, came a day after Campbell said there would be a legal fight if teams or conferences boycott the university, calling it “an antitrust violation” on the Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich show.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond sent his own letter Friday to the Big 12 calling Paxton’s antirust claims “facially absurd,” and encouraged the conference to sanction Texas Tech.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown wrote their own letters to the conference Monday also disputing Paxton’s legal arguments.
In its lawsuit, the Big 12 said Texas Tech officials told the conference last week that it intended to play Sorsby in conference games. Big 12 representatives noted that Paxton’s letter stalled a possible board vote on sanctions if Texas Tech follows through, including monetary penalties or a ban from the Big 12 Championship Game.
The Big 12 cast Paxton and Texas Tech’s position as contradictory, saying both have long warned about the dangers of sports betting by student-athletes. Texas Tech has “gone further than the Big 12 itself” by making student gambling a ground for probation or expulsion, the conference wrote, while Texas prohibits sports betting outright.
The Big 12 argues that Texas Tech previously supported the same conference authority it is now challenging by voting with other members in 2017 to withhold 25% of Baylor University’s conference revenue distributions over the school’s handling of sexual assault allegations involving the football program.
In late April, Texas Tech announced 22-year-old Sorsby was diagnosed with gambling disorder and would be admitted into a rehabilitation center in Arizona.
In a statement posted on the Texas Tech website, Hocutt defended Sorsby’s eligibility and asked for critics to understand the nuance of Sorsby’s addiction.
“A young man in treatment for a clinically diagnosed addiction exercised his legal right to seek a remedy in court, and a judge agreed with him,” Hocutt said. “Our role has been to support his recovery, not to engineer his eligibility.”
In a statement, Paxton said state antitrust laws protect the university from a “coordinated effort to harm a competitor.”
“Texas Tech acted consistent with a lawful court order and no athletic conference has the right to punish a member institution for respecting the judicial process,” he said.
The conference wants a judge to declare that sanctions against Texas Tech would not violate the antitrust law and to block Paxton and Texas Tech from interfering with the conference’s authority to enforce its bylaws.
Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech from the University of Cincinnati in January and has not yet played a game on the team.
Sorsby’s legal team for the lawsuit includes Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock. A spokesperson for the speaker’s office referred questions last week about Sorsby’s case to Burrows’ private law practice.
