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Brendan Sorsby has been granted a temporary injunction in a Texas court to play in 2026 despite gambling admissions.
The decision essentially overturns the NCAA ruling that made Sorsby permanently ineligible for gambling violations and clears a path for the fifth-year-senior to play for the Red Raiders in 2026.
Judge Ken Curry presided over the case for the 99th District Court in Lubbock County (Texas), where Texas Tech University is located. Curry ruled that Sorsby “demonstrated that he will suffer a probable, imminent and irreparable injury” if he cannot play. The judge said Sorsby would miss out on the coaching, camaraderie and training and wouldn’t be able to build necessary skills to help himself and Texas Tech’s team if he didn’t receive the injunction.
Sorsby will miss the Red Raiders’ first two games against Abilene Christian and Oregon State as part of the decision but would be eligible to play the rest of the season.
Oddsmakers at BetOnline were currently adjusting Texas Tech odds and futures as this goes to press.
As previously noted here at Gambling911.com, Texas Tech has deep pockets and Sorsby was the guy they wanted, but the Red Raiders remained contenders even without him. Now that he's back on the roster, things change more dramatically.
Texas Tech’s odds opened at 14/1 to win the CFP. They went as low at 11/1. They sat at 25/1 ahead of Monday's news.
But Monday’s decision, should it hold up on appeal, represents a critical defeat for the NCAA amid a situation that has garnered a ton of interest from media and fans. The NCAA has suffered previous high-profile defeats in court, including eligibility cases and local rulings, but a loss here would signal an inability to enforce clear-cut gambling rules.
“The NCAA strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling in this case and is deeply concerned about the damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications of this outcome — which undermines and corrupts the integrity of sports,” the NCAA said in a statement. “The NCAA 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.”
Sorsby, 22, admitted to wagering at least $90,000 on more than 9,000 bets over the course of his college career, including at least 40 bets totaling at least $850 on Indiana football in some capacity from Sept. 2, 2022, to Oct. 22, 2022, when he was a member of the Hoosiers. NCAA rules stipulate the penalty for a player gambling on their own team is permanent ineligibility.
- Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com
