College sports on the brink after Lubbock judge rules favorably for Brendan Sorsby

Florida AD Scott Stricklin reacted to the Sorsby ruling Monday

“'Cause the players tried to take the field The marching band refused to yield Do you recall what was revealed The day the music died?” – From American Pie, by Don Mclean

Monday afternoon Lubbock County judge Ken Curry did what everybody with a functioning brain knew he was going to do. Taking a cue from the Oxford judge who ruled that Trinidad Chambliss can get a sixth year of college football despite the NCAA ruling that his eligibility expired, Curry did one up on his Mississippi colleague by ruling that Brendan Sorsby can play football at Texas Tech this year.

In ruling that Sorsby can play despite a gambling addiction that would still be going on if not for law enforcement intervention after he transferred to Texas Tech from Cincinnati, Judge Curry ruled the Sorsby would suffer “probable, imminent and irreparable damage” if he were not allowed to play football this fall. Curry went along with the Texas Tech argument that Sorsby is a victim here. Some victim. He’s been betting on college football since his freshman year at Indiana. It carried over to Cincinnati and then to Texas Tech to the tune of more than 2,000 bets for more than $90,000.

When caught by law enforcement, Sorsby checked into rehab for gambling addiction. Texas Tech, faced with a season minus a stud quarterback, has been trying to sell us on the idea that Sorsby is a reformed former gambler. Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec a couple of weeks ago said, “Brendan himself has been open about his struggle with severe gambling addiction, and we believe his vulnerability deserves to be met with the full weight of this institution’s support. Our foremost priority in contemplating Brendan’s future with Texas Tech is his continued health and well-being.”

Uh-huh.

Anyone but a diehard Texas Tech fan sees right through that. The only well-being Schovanec is concerned with is the bottom line of his football program. A year ago Texas Tech won the Big 12 and made the College Football Playoff. With Sorsby the Red Raiders are favored to win the league title again and make the playoff a second straight year. Without him, the QB is someone named Lloyd Jones III, a redshirt freshman who threw all of five passes last year in mop-up duty. Would Schovanec be vociferous in his support of a walk-on long snapper for the meat squad that gets beaten up every day in practice? Amazing how a QB who threw for 2,800 yards and 27 touchdowns alters your moral compass.

Now the NCAA has filed an appeal, but will it be expedited in time to prevent Sorsby from playing? Texas Tech imposed a two-game suspension on Sorsby, paycheck games against D1AA Abilene Christian and Oregon State. Two whole games. Whoopdedoo.

Shoeless Joe Jackson got banned for life for betting on baseball back in 1919. Pete Rose was banned for life for gambling on baseball. Kentucky lost an entire basketball season (1952-53) because some of its players had taken money from gamblers who wanted them to fix games. Former Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers got banned by the NCAA after it was discovered he had gambled on games when he was a backup quarterback. The NBA just banned several players for life for gambling. The list of offenders caught and banned by their sports seems endless.

Everybody seems to understand the dangers of letting Sorsby off the hook. Everyone, of course, but Texas Tech, which, if it had an ounce of integrity, would have first off demanded the return of the $5 million in NIL money it took to lure Sorsby from Cincinnati. That’s a lot of money that can be wagered but we are to believe that Sorsby is cured of his gambling addiction.

What are the odds that 30 days in a rehab will cure Sorsby’s addiction? What happens if some gambler(s) get their hooks into Sorsby and try to blackmail him into fixing a game? Texas Tech can’t guarantee something like that won’t happen. Neither can Sorsby.

The ruling by Judge Curry has set off a firestorm of scathing reactions from conference commissioners, college presidents, athletic directors and coaches. Here are a few of the comments starting with Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin.

Stricklin said: “As someone who grew up reading about the 'Black Sox Scandal,' and seeing what happened to Pete Rose and just understanding how bright that line seemed to be in all of American sports, I'm stunned that there would be a question at the court level that this is acceptable. That's not a judgment on the young man. It's just that was a pretty fundamental tenet of American sports, that if you're going to participate, you can't gamble, especially on your own team."

Speaking to ESPN, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark reacted to the ruling: "The ramifications of today's ruling are significant and could have broad impacts across college athletics, creating great concern amongst our membership. I've been consulting with our key stakeholders and have scheduled meetings with our conference ADs and executive board this week. We are also in touch with [NCAA president] Charlie Baker and anticipate the NCAA to appeal the order in the next 24-48 hours. We will continue to monitor and evaluate the situation."

Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks went scorched earth in a statement to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger: "I think there needs to be serious conversations about not playing Texas Tech in any sports. This is not about Texas Tech. It's about protecting our own locker room. We cannot in good conscience put our student-athletes on a field where the competitive integrity of the contest is compromised and overridden by the courts. If a state court wants to dictate eligibility rules, they can play themselves … All FBS schools should only take the field against programs operating under a uniform, trustworthy standard of fairness. We've officially reached the point of no return."

Georgia president Jere Morehead said the judge’s ruling should cause the Southeastern Conference to consider breaking away from the NCAA: “For anyone who has dismissed my previous calls for SEC rules of enforcement and the SEC institutions only playing each other, today's ruling is clear evidence why that may be the only path left for us.”

Morehead has an ally in Nebraska athletic director Tony Dannen, who said, “I have not personally advocated for conference self-governance, but today's decision makes it obvious that it is a necessary path forward. We can not align with institutions who advocate or support player participation in this circumstance."

TCU coach Sonny Dykes, a Texas Tech graduate, said: "You would hope that there would be someone at some point that says, 'Hey look, this is not a good thing for the game and I care enough about the game to not happen. I think it's sad that these adults and people who are supposed to guide college football aren't guiding it. I think it's a shame. Everyone is looking out for their self-interests. No one is looking out for what's right in college football."

All these opinions and none of them are favorable for Texas Tech. If these school presidents, conference commissioners, athletic directors and coaches are so outraged, then why don’t they agree to give Texas Tech an ultimatum? Talk is cheap. Action can be decisive. A good place to start would be to rule that every game Sorsby plays should go in the record books as a loss for Texas Tech. Ban Texas Tech from playing in the Big 12 Championship Game and the College Football Playoff.

They could do that if they actually had the guts to take a real stand instead of offering up talking points.

Additionally, they could use the Sorsby situation as a springboard to do something that could actually save college sports. Rather than go hat in hand, side by side with the NCAA to the halls of Congress begging for lawmakers who rarely agree on anything to come up with solutions, it’s time for bold, decisive action that starts with a decision to find a dumpster big enough to hold the NCAA and its bloated bureaucracy.

If the NCAA had any integrity at all, it would have reformed itself years ago when it had the chance. A rulebook too thick to be followed combined with selective enforcement of the rules has led to this moment when the future of college sports is hanging in the balance, waiting for someone, anyone, to offer common sense, practical solutions to the problems that grow bigger by the moment.

The common sense, practical solution to today’s problems should begin with a decision to secede from the NCAA. A new organization is needed, one with a streamlined set of rules that don’t require a dozen lawyers in a compliance department at every school just to interpret simple, everyday decisions. The new organization should have a commissioner who is strong enough to stand up to the cheaters and institutions who wish to circumvent the rules by turning to a local judge for a favorable injunction. Justice should be fair for everyone and rules cannot be selectively enforced. Let there be no sacred cows.

The time is now for decisions that will bring some sanity back to college sports. If not, then we’ll look back on June 8, 2026 as the day the music died not just for college football but all college sports.