College football has a commissioner, and his name is Local Judge.
The system we’ve seen built around college football in the 21st century won’t break because of the money, but because we allowed a player to gamble on the sport without the penalty of banishment. This system won’t break because one judge in the next county over made one ruling, but because college football’s most powerful individuals will not come to an agreement that protects and betters the sport they claim to love.
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction on Monday, allowing him to play for the Red Raiders this fall, despite being declared ineligible by the NCAA for betting on college sports, including bets made on his own team while at Indiana.
So, this begs the question: where do we go now if we can’t protect the integrity of competition?
That is the question facing many administrators, coaches and fans after the ruling came in from Judge Ken Curry, who is from Fort Worth, Texas, and was brought to Lubbock County for this case. The temporary restraining order prevents the NCAA from being able to block Sorsby’s eligibility for what will be his final collegiate season.
Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction, which clears the way for him to play for the Red Raiders this fall. (Photo by Bryan Byerly/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
Sorsby acknowledged placing thousands of bets over the past four years during his time at Indiana, Cincinnati and now Texas Tech, which have totaled upwards of $90,000, a clear violation of NCAA rules.
Curry also unilaterally suspended Sorsby for the first two games of Texas Tech’s 2026 season against “Ain’t Played Nobody Conference” members Abilene Christian and Oregon State.
This last stipulation in Curry’s ruling brings back around a case Sorsby’s attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, cited as evidence of the NCAA’s inconsistency in enforcing its gambling bylaws: Former Indiana volleyball assistant coach Brett Agne was found to have made more than 700 bets of more than $327,000 in five months — including 27 on IU football and men’s basketball.
Agne received a two-year show cause order and a 10-game suspension but, importantly, no outright ban from coaching NCAA sports. Agne no longer coaches at Indiana and was recently coaching professional volleyball for the Indy Ignite, a women’s professional indoor volleyball team that competes in Major League Volleyball (MLV).
The NCAA believed Sorsby’s actions warranted permanent ineligibility from playing college football, and according to some athletic directors and coaches, there simply shouldn’t be any exception to that rule.
“We’re too f—ing greedy right now,” a Big 12 assistant coach told me. “We’re out for ourselves. Yeah, it goes without saying we want their kid [Sorsby] to be OK, however what about the entire doggone sport? Nobody desires the foundations to use to them, they usually need the screws turned to all people else.”
TCU AD Mike Buddie and Kansas State AD Gene Taylor have instructed that Massive 12 groups may elect to not play Texas Tech this season. (Photograph by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos)
Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks and Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen have every publicly stated they won’t schedule the Purple Raiders in non-conference matchups. Massive Ten athletic administrators are anticipated to fulfill to debate a league-wide mandate that successfully boycotts scheduling Texas Tech of their non-conference affairs. Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor can also be saying the quiet half out loud.
“We have had some critical dialog about it,” Taylor told Yahoo Sports. “There may be nonetheless loads to be mentioned. We aren’t scheduled to play them this 12 months, nevertheless it’s one thing we have now to take a look at from a university soccer perspective. That is better than the Massive 12.”
It’s better than school soccer, too.
American sport is constructed on the idea that competitors is truthful. It’s the explanation that eight members of the 1919 Black Sox group obtained the harshest remedy possible for fixing video games. It’s the explanation Pete Rose’s bust won’t ever see the within of the Baseball Corridor of Fame after betting on the game.
The integrity of the game issues greater than any establishment, group or participant. We should imagine the sport is, with out query, being performed to win, to not cowl a variety or feast on lengthy odds for the sake of cash made.
On Monday, a Texas choose unknown to most school soccer followers issued a ruling that might show extra consequential than any controversy the game has confronted this offseason. As a neighborhood choose, although, he bought to play school soccer commissioner for a day.
What’s worse is that one other choose in one other county will finally make the following determination, as a result of leaders nonetheless can’t agree on the way to govern the game and cease the evil that’s greed from persevering with to pillage our in any other case thriving village that’s school soccer.
Curry is hardly the primary occasion of this. Up to now 4 months alone, judges in Tennessee, Mississippi and Oklahoma have been requested to rule on school soccer eligibility instances.
Former Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar sued for an additional 12 months of eligibility, arguing his junior school seasons shouldn’t rely towards his NCAA clock. A chancellor in Tennessee disagreed. Had he received his case, he was more likely to make seven figures in NIL and revenue-sharing at Tennessee.
A Mississippi choose reached the alternative conclusion with Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss, granting the soon-to-be 24-year-old one other 12 months of eligibility.
Then in April, Oklahoma linebacker Owen Heinecke secured an injunction permitting him to play the 2026 season regardless of already collaborating within the NFL Scouting Mix.
Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby positioned 1000’s of bets totaling no less than $90,000 over the previous 4 years. (Photograph by Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire through Getty Photos)
Sorsby stepping into entrance of a neighborhood choose and being granted a brief restraining order towards the NCAA that permits him to play school soccer is the newest occasion of eligibility disputes being determined in courtrooms.
This offseason has proven us that school soccer not solely lacks the form of enforcement it desires, however the enforcement it deserves.
And sure, it is solely June.
