Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction order in his lawsuit against the NCAA on Monday in Texas state court, according to a written order obtained by The Athletic. The decision essentially overturns the NCAA ruling that made Sorsby permanently ineligible for gambling violations and clears a path for the fifth-year senior to play for the Red Raiders in 2026.
Sorsby will miss the Red Raiders’ first two games against Abilene Christian and Oregon State as part of the decision but would be eligible to play the rest of the season, beginning with the Friday night Big 12 opener against Houston on Sept. 18.
The NCAA is expected to file an appeal within days, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The NCAA deemed Sorsby permanently ineligible after an investigation into his gambling history, including Sorsby betting on his own team in 2022 when he was a member of the Indiana Hoosiers.
Monday’s decision, should it hold up on appeal, represents a critical defeat for the NCAA amid a situation that has garnered a ton of interest from media and fans. The NCAA has suffered previous high-profile defeats in court, including eligibility cases and local rulings, but a loss here would signal an inability to enforce clear-cut gambling rules.
“The NCAA strongly disagrees with the court’s ruling in this 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 said in a statement. “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.”
Sports gambling on college sports and by college athletes is a growing concern in the industry, and one the NCAA has committed resources to combatting. Sorsby’s legal victory further kneecaps the NCAA’s enforcement in what many believed to be a straightforward argument, and makes the NCAA the “first and only major American sports league to allow an athlete to compete after betting on his own games,” according to the NCAA’s own court filing.
Judge Ken Curry presided over the case for the 99th District Court in Lubbock County (Texas), where Texas Tech University is located. Curry ruled that Sorsby “demonstrated that he will suffer a probable, imminent and irreparable injury” if he cannot play. The judge said Sorsby would miss out on the coaching, camaraderie and training and wouldn’t be able to build necessary skills to help himself and Texas Tech’s team if he didn’t receive the injunction.
Curry wrote that Sorsby must continue seeking counseling for gambling issues, participate in a program like Gamblers Anonymous and file monthly reports showing his compliance to the NCAA.
Sorsby sought a court ruling ahead of the June 22 deadline for the NFL Supplemental Draft, which offered an opportunity to make an NFL roster in 2026. Instead, he has an opportunity to return to college football this fall.
At a temporary injunction hearing on June 1, and in an opposition response filed in court by the NCAA on May 29, the association argued that Sorsby’s gambling history triggered thousands of NCAA violations that put the integrity of the game at risk.
Sorsby, 22, admitted to wagering at least $90,000 on more than 9,000 bets over the course of his college career, including at least 40 bets totaling at least $850 on Indiana football in some capacity from Sept. 2, 2022, to Oct. 22, 2022, when he was a member of the Hoosiers. NCAA rules stipulate the penalty for a player gambling on their own team is permanent ineligibility.
Prominent sports labor lawyer Jeffrey Kessler represented Sorsby in the lawsuit. Sorsby’s legal team argued that Sorsby never bet on a game in which he played and never manipulated a game he participated in. Sorsby was also clinically diagnosed with a gambling and anxiety disorder, according to court filings by Sorsby’s legal team, in which Sorsby described his gambling as a “compulsion.” He recently completed a residential treatment program for his gambling addiction. Sorsby did not attend the June 1 hearing.
Sorsby’s legal team argued that the NCAA is “effectively punishing Mr. Sorsby for suffering from a mental health condition,” highlighting the NCAA’s own constitution, which states college athletes “shall not be discriminated against or disparaged because of their physical or mental health.”
Sorsby previously offered to serve a two-game suspension, among other conditions, appealing for leniency based on his cooperation with the NCAA investigation, his clinically diagnosed gambling addiction, and his vow to use his experience and platform to raise awareness for sports gambling among college athletes.
“The only evidence here is that this is a legitimate mental illness and must be treated and recognized as such,” Kessler stated in court, according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
“It is a just result,” Kessler said of the ruling in a statement Monday. “Brendan gets to devote himself to his team and the education of athletes on the dangers of gambling addiction. He will continue his treatment, miss two games, and there is no injury to the competitive integrity of the NCAA. It is what we proposed and what the NCAA should have accepted had it been true to its promises to prioritize the welfare of athletes.”
In addition to Indiana football, Sorsby also placed bets on Indiana and Cincinnati men’s basketball programs while he was a student at both schools. According to updated NCAA sports betting guidelines passed in 2023, betting on other sports at an athlete’s own school is punishable by a lost season of eligibility. Betting on an athlete’s own sport involving another school could cost an athlete 50 percent of one season of eligibility, and betting more than $800 on pro sports could cost an athlete at least 30 percent of a season.
Sorsby admitted to violating all of those guidelines. At the June 1 hearing, the NCAA also pointed to bets Sorsby placed on opposing players to “overachieve” in games against Indiana basketball as examples of integrity concerns and Sorsby betting against his own school.
“Every major American sports league has a rule regulating gambling on sports, because it goes to the heart of the integrity of the athletic product taking place on the field, court, or pool,” the NCAA stated in its opposition response. “Whatever the reasons for (Sorsby’s) behavior, he broke the rules and should not receive an exception that no other athlete, in history, has ever received.”
The NCAA recently denied a reinstatement request as well as an appeal made by Texas Tech on Sorsby’s behalf, which is part of the NCAA’s formal reinstatement process and separate from Sorsby’s lawsuit.
A 6-foot-3, 235-pound dual-threat quarterback, Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech in January with one season of eligibility remaining. After two seasons each at Indiana and Cincinnati, Sorsby was one of the most coveted players in the transfer portal this offseason and signed a one-year deal with the Red Raiders that was expected to pay him more than $4 million for the 2026 season.
Aside from a potential appeal by the NCAA, there could still be additional fallout for Sorsby. The NCAA’s court filings do not specify which law enforcement entity informed the sportsbook about Sorsby’s gambling, nor do they mention whether law enforcement is pursuing criminal charges against Sorsby. But The Athletic previously reported that Sorsby is under investigation by Ohio state gambling officials, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission. The Indiana Gaming Commission previously told The Athletic it was withholding a document request related to Sorsby because of a state law that shields the investigatory records of a law enforcement agency.
There is also a separate, ongoing federal lawsuit filed by the University of Cincinnati against Sorsby and seeking a $1 million buyout in liquidated damages over Sorsby allegedly violating a multiseason revenue-sharing agreement with Cincinnati when he transferred to Tech.
Texas Tech is coming off the program’s first-ever Big 12 championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff in 2025. Sorsby averaged better than 2,800 yards passing and 500 rushing yards in his two seasons with the Bearcats, including 36 touchdowns passing and rushing in 2025, third-most in the FBS, with only five interceptions.
The NCAA has taken numerous court losses in recent years that have upended its ability to govern and enforce rules. A judge in West Virginia in December 2023 tossed out the NCAA’s rule limiting undergraduate athletes to one transfer without sitting out a season. The result has been unlimited unrestricted transfers and almost constant free-agency for athletes.
NCAA eligibility rules have also faced numerous legal challenges, starting with Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia earning a sixth year from a judge in Tennessee. A flood of eligibility lawsuits followed and the results have been mixed. Most notably, Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss received an injunction from a Mississippi judge that will allow him to play for the Rebels this season with an extra season of eligibility.
In basketball, former G League player Charles Bediako returned to play for Alabama last season after a judge ruled in his favor though that decision was ultimately overturned. Bediako played only five games for the Crimson Tide.
The Sorsby case differs from those because it involves violations of NCAA rules, not the interpretation of rule or NCAA waiver process.
— Ralph Russo and Matt Baker contributed to this report.
