There is a ruling in the Brendan Sorsby v. NCAA case in Lubbock County.
LUBBOCK, Texas - In the evening of June 5, it was announced that the NCAA had denied Texas Tech's appeal to reinstate transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who was ruled ineligible for gambling on sports, including college football, while he was a student-athlete.
Fans initially misconstrued this news as the official axing of Sorsby's chances of playing for the Red Raiders in 2026, which would be his final year of eligibility.
However, a source close to the situation tells RedRaiderRoundtable.com that "no one should have been surprised with this."
The real battle for Sorsby's eligibility comes in the 99th District Court of Texas in Lubbock County, where Sorsby and a team of elite college sports counselmen have filed a lawsuit against the NCAA for its mishandling of his eligibility amid his diagnosed gambling disorder.
The suit seeks a temporary injunction that could allow the former Indiana and Cincinnati quarterback to compete for Texas Tech this fall.
The filing came on May 18. Judge Ken Curry heard from both sides in court, with Sorsby absent, on June 1.
Now we have a ruling.
The court has granted Sorsby an injunction against the NCAA, making him eligible to play for the Red Raiders in the 2026 season.
The ruling states that the NCAA cannot prevent Sorsby from "practicing, playing, or otherwise participating on Texas Tech's football team for the 2026 season."
However, there are stipulations.
According to documents accessed by members of the media, Sorsby will be inactive for Texas Tech's first two games of the season, which "was the penalty his legal team suggested to the NCAA." The Red Raiders face Abilene Christian and Oregon State (on the road) to begin the season.
Texas Tech University ruled Sorsby ineligible the same day he filed the separate lawsuit against the NCAA. That was the governing body's second denial for reinstatement.
But Judge Curry's ruling now officially gives Sorsby his final year of collegiate eligibility.
The NCAA had maintained that Sorsby’s gambling history had violated its strict policies, making him ineligible to compete. Its latest decision signals that the organization isn’t interested in softening the punishment.
But the civil took a different stance.
The NCAA has fired back with a statement:
"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 sports. The NCAA is committed to supporting student-athlete mental health but must continue to aggressively defend against actions that defraud college athletics and threaten competitive integrity, such as betting on one's own sport."
Judge Curry's ruling states that the NCAA's termination of Sorsby's eligibility "demonstrated that he will suffer a probable, imminent, and irreparable injury if this Court does not issue this temporary injunction because he will be unable to participate as a member of Texas Tech University's 2026 Football season."
Sorsby's admitted gambling addiction, according to the affidavit and lawsuit against the NCAA, had steeped to an unprecedented level, and has become the national news story of college athletics this summer. Sorsby, 22, underwent a month-long residential treatment program, where he was clinically diagnosed with gambling and anxiety disorders.
The Cincinnati transfer quarterback, who committed to the Red Raiders this spring after a reported $5 million NIL agreement, first began placing bets at Winstar in Oklahoma, a short drive across the Red River from Sorsby's Denton residence in high school, according to the documents. Then, he began using online betting platforms that allowed him to place wagers inside the state of Texas, where traditional gambling remains illegal.
That led to thousands of bets and a reported sum of $90,000 wagered - with bets ranging from micro wagers of individual pitches at baseball games to Romanian soccer matches and even the Fourth of July staple, Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.
The most scrutinized of all was Sorsby's bets made on Indiana while he was on the Hoosiers' roster as a bench-warming freshman in 2022.
"To be clear, I never placed any bets 'against' Indiana or against any players on the team," Sorsby claimed in the affidavit. "I never used any non-public information that I knew about the team in deciding what bets to place. My bets were purely intended to make me feel more connected to the game and my teammates and to give me more of a reason to root for my teammates. Because the Indiana football team was not a very strong competitor in 2022, I lost most of the bets I placed."
"... In retrospect, by the end of my freshman year at Indiana, I was truly addicted to gambling," he said.
But, in a monumental movement in favor of Texas Tech, Joey McGuire and the Red Raiders have their quarterback for the 2026 season.
