The NCAA ruled Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby permanently ineligible after he admitted to wagering approximately $90,000 on professional and college sports over four years, including 40 bets on Indiana football while he was a member of the program.
Sorsby was widely expected to pursue the NFL Supplemental Draft after the ruling, but a Lubbock County court granted the 22-year-old quarterback a temporary injunction that overturned the ban and reduced his punishment to a two-game suspension. The decision has drawn condemnation from across college football, and former NFL MVP Cam Newton didn’t hold back.
Cam Newton Questions the Integrity Of Brendan Sorsby’s Lubbock Court Ruling
Newton, during a segment of his “4th & 1” podcast, called out the court’s decision allowing Sorsby to continue playing college football.
“I hope Texas Tech lose every game,” Newton said. “This ain’t jokes, I hope y’all lose every single game. That’s how I feel about it. When this is a glaring issue, where you give him, in essence, a slap on his wrist. I don’t care what you betted on, rules are rules. Like, what we got stop signs for if you ain’t going to stop? What we got laws for if you ain’t going to abide by them? What we got sanctions for if you ain’t going to abide by that either?”
“If this was an NCAA issue, the court should have had the ruling in Indiana,” Newton added. “Unbiased, no conflict of interest here, and let’s make our judgment from the facts that we have at hand… This has nothing to do with Brendan Sorsby more so than it has everything to do with rules and regulations.”
Sorsby reportedly placed thousands of bets across his college career, including wagers made through family members’ accounts. The NCAA discovered the activity in April when he admitted to a gambling addiction and entered a rehab facility, and the governing body deemed the quarterback ineligible in May.
The fallout from the court’s decision has been massive. The Athletic’s Seth Emerson and Ralph D. Russo recently revealed that, “Big Ten athletic directors and commissioner Tony Petitti are planning to discuss a league-wide ban on scheduling Texas Tech in all sports.”
If the decision goes through, it will have huge ramifications for Texas Tech. However, the Texas Attorney General’s office has warned that it will take legal action.
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Here’s what the Associated Press’ Stephen Hawkins wrote about it:
“The AG’s office said any sanctions against Texas Tech for “acting consistent” with the district court injunction “would be a per se violation of federal and state antitrust laws — a naked horizontal agreement among competitors to disadvantage Texas Tech by cutting off access to the resources it needs to compete. Beyond any antitrust exposure, the letter said, the Big 12 would also face liability for “breach of contract and tortious interference” for any sanction that results in the alteration of Texas Tech’s scheduled games.”
Before the gambling scandal, Sorsby was projected as a potential first-round pick in the 2027 NFL Draft. He threw for 5,613 yards, 45 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions in 24 games across two seasons at Cincinnati, and according to PFSN’s CFB QB Impact Metric, he was the 10th-ranked quarterback in the nation last year with an impact score of 88.2.
Whether the gambling cloud follows him to the professional level is a question NFL front offices will have to answer. Sorsby is cleared to take the field after he serves a two-game suspension, and it remains to be seen how Texas Tech will handle all the drama surrounding their quarterback.
