The college sports world was rocked to its very core on Monday morning as embattled Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby won a temporary restraining order against the NCAA that will enable the transfer from Cincinnati to play for the Red Raiders this season despite having admitted to an addiction to gambling, including bets placed on his own team.
Local Texas Judge Ken Curry’s decision to grant the QB’s injunction request sent shock waves not only in the Big 12 — where Texas Tech competes against the likes of BYU and Utah — but throughout the country, and especially brought into question the NCAA’s power to rule over any of its member schools, including Texas Tech.
Reaction to the ruling, aside from the obvious elation in Lubbock, was a mixture of outrage, astonishment and incredulity, and at least one athletic director in the Big 12 questioned whether or not other schools in the Power Four conference, let alone other schools throughout the country, should even play the Red Raiders in any sports this season.
“We’ve had some serious conversation about it,” Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor told Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, while noting that the Wildcats aren’t scheduled to play Texas Tech in football in 2026. “There is still a lot to be discussed. …. It is something we have to look at from a college football perspective. This is greater than the Big 12.”
Neither BYU nor Utah is scheduled to play Texas Tech this season, after the Red Raiders went 3-0 last year against the Utah-based schools.
Utah athletic director Mark Harlan took to X to post his opinion, saying he is “disheartened by the injunction issued today in the Brendan Sorsby matter, which will allow him to compete this fall despite clear violations of NCAA policies and ethical guidelines.”
Continued Harlan: “We are all committed to supporting student-athlete well-being, but we also must have a definitive path forward that preserves the most basic tenets of competitive integrity in our industry.”
BYU Athletic Department spokesperson Jon McBride told the Deseret News Monday afternoon that BYU would not be making a comment on the matter.
Elsewhere, the condemnation was almost universal.
Noted Dan Wetzel of ESPN in a column suggesting the ruling will “cause permanent damage” to the NCAA: “Simply put, the decision Monday …. is ridiculous, short-sighted and illogical.”
Wetzel wrote that the three-page court order authored by the Fort Worth-based judge “offered no significant justification.”
The utter disdain for the ruling wasn’t just within the Big 12, as Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks told Dellenger that the schools in his conference could consider not scheduling Texas Tech in any sports.
“This is not about Texas Tech. It is about protecting our own locker room,” said Brooks, who is a member of the NCAA Football Oversight Committee. “We cannot in good conscience put our student-athletes on a field where the competitive integrity of the contest is compromised and overrides by the courts. If a state court wants to dictate eligibility rules, they can play themselves.”
Later Monday, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark weighed in, telling ESPN’s Pete Thamel that the NCAA would appeal within the next two days.
In one of the more bizarre developments of the case, the judge himself issued a two-game suspension to Sorsby — following the suggestion of the school — in a role that is usually reserved for the conferences or the NCAA to determine.
The NCAA issued a statement condemning the judge’s ruling within minutes of it becoming public, saying that it “strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling” and is “deeply concerned about the damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications of this outcome — which undermines and corrupts the integrity of sports.”
Not surprisingly, Texas Tech — which is quickly developing a reputation as an athletics program willing to do, and spend, whatever it takes to field winning teams — issued a statement in support of the ruling.
“As we have said before, we do not believe that the circumstances of Brendan’s case warranted permanent ineligibility,” read a statement from Texas Tech director of athletics Kirby Hocutt.
Sorsby, who was Cincinnati’s quarterback in losses at Utah and at home against BYU last fall, also issued a statement, saying he was “very grateful (to Texas Tech) for the endless support I have received through this entire process.”
Sorsby, who has one season of college eligibility remaining, said he hopes to use his experience and situation “to help others going forward.”
The NCAA has vowed to appeal the ruling.
Barring a change, Sorsby is scheduled to be suspended for Tech’s opener against Abilene Christian and its Sept. 12 game at Oregon State. The Red Raiders’ conference opener is Sept. 18 against Houston in Lubbock, and Sorsby will be eligible to make his debut as a Red Raider in that contest pitting expected Big 12 contenders.
Here’s more reaction from social media on Monday’s monumental ruling: