Just days after the NCAA rejected Texas Tech’s appeal to reinstate Brendan Sorsby, the quarterback who bet on his own team at Indiana will indeed play college football this year.
Key Takeaways
- Texas judge says NCAA can’t prohibit Sorsby from participation this season.
- Sorsby must sit out two games and meet several gambling disorder requirements.
- The NCAA denied his reinstatement appeal on Friday.
Texas judge Ken Curry ruled in Sorsby’s favor on Monday, according to multiple reports, and decreed that the NCAA can’t prohibit Sorsby from “practicing, playing, or otherwise participating on Texas Tech’s football team for the 2026 season.”
From the ruling, the NCAA is cannot prevent Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby from "practicing, playing or otherwise participating on Texas Tech's football team for the 2026 season." pic.twitter.com/IfQQ4hJMUl
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) June 8, 2026
However, the judge agreed with Texas Tech’s request for a two-game suspension this fall.
Curry’s decision to grant the temporary injunction, making Sorsby eligible, comes a week after the quarterback’s legal team and the NCAA pleaded their cases in a Texas courtroom.
Sorsby attorney Jeffrey Kessler statement to @YahooSports: "This is a just result. He will continue in treatment, devote himself to his team and educating others about the dangers of gambling addiction, and there is no damage to the competitive integrity of NCAA games."
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 8, 2026
Sorsby’s lawyer argued that his gambling disorder is a mental health issue that was not being reinforced by NCAA because of its ineligible ruling. The governing body said in a statement on Monday that it supports mental health, but the NCAA will continue to defend the integrity of its sports.
“The NCAA strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling in Sorsby’s case and is deeply concerned about the damaging, far-reaching, and broadly destabilizing ramifications of this outcome – which undermines and corrupts the integrity of the sport,” the NCAA said.
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Continued counseling
Sorsby filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in May after he was declared ineligible for violating the college sports governing body’s gambling policy. The NCAA denied the team’s request for reinstatement on Friday, according to multiple reports.
Sorsby placed thousands of bets online, even when he was under 21, with the help of friends and family over the last four years. After transferring from Cincinnati to Texas Tech in the offseason, Sorsby left the team in April to enter a rehab program for a gambling addiction.
As part of the granted injunction, Sorsby must continue receiving counseling from a credentialed gambling disorder counselor, attend Gamblers Anonymous meetings, continue treatment for an anxiety disorder, participate in athletic-specific recovery resources and mentorship, and file compliance reports to the NCAA through his legal team.
Brendan Sorsby cannot play in Texas Tech's first two games, which was the penalty his legal team suggested to the NCAA. Tech opens with Abilene Christian and then travels to Oregon State. (No. 5 below). pic.twitter.com/8KUrSooMG7
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) June 8, 2026
Reasons for ruling
The NCAA has a policy of automatically ruling a player ineligible if they wager on their own team, which Sorsby did as a freshman backup. He never bet on games he played in, but the NCAA and law enforcement investigated his conduct.
On Monday, the judge ruled that Sorsby would suffer “improbable, imminent, and irreparable injury” if the court didn’t alter the NCAA’s ineligibility decision. Curry added that if he couldn’t play college football, Sorsby would be robbed of “elite coaching, training resources, camaraderie, and regimen that only being a member of a Division I football team can provide.”
Had the NCAA’s ruling stood, the judge believes it would’ve impaired Sorsby’s decision whether or not to enter the NFL Supplemental Draft, which has a June 22 deadline.
Pattern of betting
Sorsby bet on college football, college basketball, the NBA, MLB, PGA Tour, tennis, Turkish basketball, Romanian soccer, and Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, according to the filed lawsuit. He placed $90,000 in wagers and transferred at least $60,000 to two friends to help him bet on FanDuel, Hard Rock Bet, Underdog, and PrizePicks.
Sorsby claims he wagered $850 on Indiana to help him feel more a part of the games when he wasn’t playing.
“It became a habit for me to bet,” Sorsby said in a written statement to the NCAA. “My betting became a compulsion, which made it virtually impossible to resist the constant notifications I received from betting apps. I lost complete control of my addiction. I now realize the apps controlled me and I did not control them.”
