Brendan Sorsby’s lawsuit against NCAA could set a dangerous precedent in college sports moving forward

Brendan Sorsby's college football career should likely be over, according to rules put in place, after the gambling revelations detailed this week in a lawsuit filed against the NCAA by his own attorneys.

At a time when athletes are suing the NCAA over nearly every restriction tied to earning opportunities, this case feels far more straightforward. But because the lawsuit was filed in Lubbock, Texas, Sorsby’s legal team is clearly hoping a local judge grants an injunction that allows the Texas Tech quarterback back onto the field for the 2026 season.

Yes, that's what this case has come down to, which makes this situation so troubling on multiple fronts. At its core, it's clear that this young man is battling a disease, while his lawyers battle the NCAA.

BRENDAN SORSBY ADMITS TO GAMBLING ON HIS OWN TEAM, SUES NCAA IN LUBBOCK COURT FOR INJUNCTION

I’ll criticize the NCAA when it deserves it. The organization has repeatedly lost credibility in its attempts to regulate college athletics, especially in the NIL era. But this case is different. Schools and the NCAA have spent years warning athletes about the dangers and consequences tied to sports gambling.

For their part, programs like Indiana and Cincinnati — where Sorsby previously played — provide athletes with presentations, educational resources and guest speakers focused on gambling risks and NCAA rules. At some point, personal responsibility has to matter.

Schools cannot monitor athletes every second of the day, at least not in person. This is why third-party integrity companies are hired by conferences and schools to keep track of athletes' potential betting.

And while gambling companies and integrity-monitoring firms can flag suspicious activity, there are countless ways around safeguards — offshore sportsbooks, third-party accounts or unregulated betting platforms.

In reality, there's only so much the "betting-integrity" companies can do if an athlete is using an offshore account, or an unregulated betting company that makes it hard for regulators to keep tabs on through their integrated system.

But, in this case, the evidence is right there in the lawsuit filed by Brendan Sorsby against the NCAA.

"During his first football season, while on Indiana’s 'scout team,' Mr. Sorsby placed small bets—typically between $5 and $50—on the Indiana football team to win or for teammates to exceed expectations," the complaint reads. "He was not traveling with the team, and not privy to game plans; betting was his way of feeling connected to a team he could only watch from the sidelines.

"For clarity, he never bet on a game he played in or had a reasonable chance of playing in (he wasn’t playing in games at the time), and he never made any bets in a manner that could impact the outcome of any game or undermine the integrity of any game."

After placing thousands of bets on a plethora of events that included Romanian soccer, tennis, a hot dog eating contest and obviously football, the NCAA was finally made aware of his transgressions in April, years after he placed his first bets while in high school.

HAIL MARY IN LUBBOCK: BRENDAN SORSBY’S LAST SHOT AT BEATING NCAA GAMBLING ALLEGATIONS

Why would Sorsby feel the need to bet on a team he was playing for?

According to the lawsuit, Sorsby wanted to feel "connected" and have a real "stake" in games he wasn’t involved in at Indiana, having only participated in one game that season in which he redshirted.

That's it, right there. That's essentially one of the main reasons we're at this point today. As bad as I feel for someone who is battling an addiction of this magnitude, the rules were broken, even if they came to light years later. And sometimes, it takes being brought to the table with your problem to truly understand you need help battling this issue that has led to such poor decisions being made.

There’s also a larger human element here that shouldn’t be ignored.

Addiction is real. It destroys lives, families, and careers. So, we should all show some grace during his fight.

In the case of Brendan Sorsby, I can't help but feel slightly perturbed by the lawsuit filed in hopes of getting him eligible for the upcoming season so he can potentially lead Texas Tech to a College Football Playoff spot.

In their filing, Sorsby himself submitted a plea to the judge that he hopes will sway the court to grant him an injunction.

"If I cannot practice with the team, it will be severely detrimental to my mental health and my development as an athlete. Without access to coaching, teammates and on-field repetitions, I cannot develop the chemistry and skills necessary to start at quarterback in the 2026 season—and each additional day away compounds that harm. These developmental opportunities cannot be replaced or replicated."

I'm sorry, but if this man is dealing with the type of addiction that has him placing somewhere around 10,000 bets over a four-year time period, and he's admitted himself to a treatment facility in hopes of beating this addiction, it should not matter that he wouldn’t be able to "develop the chemistry and skills necessary" to be the starting quarterback at Texas Tech, along with collecting a paycheck around the $5 million range.

Sorsby offered to take a two-game suspension and have his reinstatement contingent on him completing his addiction treatment. But, it seems as though we're missing the bigger point.

Football is not something that is going to disappear for Sorsby. He will get his shot at playing in the NFL, whether that's the supplemental draft or next year's annual NFL Draft.

"The NCAA has diagnosed the disease. Its response is to punish and abandon the patient," Sorsby's attorneys wrote in their filing.

While Texas Tech and attorneys for Sorsby claim that the data shows there are zero "integrity" issues that arose from the data provided by betting companies, his representatives were hesitant to provide bank statements, text messages, or Venmo transactions dating back to December 2023.

I would have to assume the NCAA was looking for any type of records pertaining to unregulated apps that are harder to trace compared to your everyday gambling sites.

In other words, the NCAA wanted more time to investigate, while Sorsby is essentially on the clock in terms of playing in 2026 or declaring for the NFL supplemental draft. Unfortunately for the quarterback, that's a personal problem that comes when you break the rules and not the NCAA's fault, especially when they were just made aware of this all in April.

For this matter, I can't fault the NCAA for wanting to do its due diligence, while also knowing Texas Tech could offer to keep him around the program and complete his education while helping him continue battling his addiction.

The NCAA didn’t create Brendan Sorsby’s gambling problem. In this case, a judge in Lubbock, Texas, could set a horrible precedent if he rules in the favor of Sorsby.

And while the organization deserves criticism in plenty of other areas, this probably isn’t one of them.

Maybe the attorneys for Sorsby should be suing the gambling companies, if this is the type of defense they are hoping a Lubbock judge agrees with.