Brendan Sorsby has officially moved on from Texas Tech, without ever suiting up for a single game.
For its part, Texas Tech will not seek reimbursement of NIL payments already made to Sorsby.
That information appears in a lengthy, single-spaced, self-serving (frankly) statement from billionaire Cody Campbell, the chairman of the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System.
Campbell also describes Sorsby’s decision to drop his lawsuit against the NCAA and enter the NFL supplemental draft as “purely an output of practical analysis of the situation.”
“Brendan and Texas Tech stand on very solid and legitimate legal ground, but he faced a June 22nd deadline to be eligible for the NFL’s supplemental draft, and there is no practical way to resolve all of the pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date,” Campbell writes. “This is the only viable and fair path for Brendan and his future, as well as for his teammates, and our university.”
Campbell also uses the letter to climb back onto the soapbox for “Congressional action” to solve the “general chaos that persists” in college football.
He conveniently ignores the role of the Sorsby situation in highlighting the existing chaos. Which, frankly, serves Campbell’s broader interest to convert Sorsby’s case into what NCAA president Charlie Baker has called a potential “thunderbolt moment” aimed at securing a federal fix to a problem that flowed directly from decades of blatant antitrust violations by the NCAA and its members.
Again, if the NCAA and its members had embraced collective bargaining, the deal would have included a simple arbitration process that would have efficiently resolved the question of Sorsby’s eligibility — with the outcome binding on the NCAA, the Big 12, and all universities that are parties to it.
Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec and Director of Athletics Kirby Hocutt issued a separate (and much shorter) statement acknowledging Campbell’s statement and confirming that Sorsby will not play for Texas Tech in 2026.
Sorsby’s story now shifts to the NFL, and its supplemental draft. There, the most important questions will be: (1) will the NFL grant his application for the supplemental draft; (2) will the NFL suspend Sorsby for his violation of relevant gambling laws and NCAA gambling rules; and (3) will teams shy away from him because of his gambling addiction and associated diagnoses?
