Brendan Sorsby is now eligible for the 2026 college football season, making a mockery out of the sport. The Texas Tech quarterback was granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA by a judge in Lubbock County, Texas, which allows him to play for the Red Raiders this season. This ruling is a joke, because players in most sports leagues would be banned for life if they did what Sorsby did. Even if he plays well and doesn’t gamble again, it doesn’t matter because Texas Tech is enabling an addict when he needs help, and the NFL wouldn’t want any part of him.
Brendan Sorsby’s Eligibility For 2026 Is A Joke
A situation like Sorsby’s was always going to happen in the NCAA, with sports betting running rampant across the country. In the past few years, college and professional athletes were busted for betting on games, but none have gone the lengths that the Texas Tech quarterback has to place bets. According to court documents, he made thousands of bets totaling over $90,000 during his college career, which would be grounds for a lifetime ban in most sports leagues. He is a full-blown gambling addict, and rewarding him with another year of eligibility doesn’t benefit him in any way.
The reasoning for the injunction is also a joke. The court claims that Sorsby “will suffer a probable, imminent, and irreparable injury” if he doesn’t play for the Red Raiders in 2026. The only damage that would come to the quarterback is self-inflicted. No one made him place bets on his own team, and he only got help for his addiction when his 2026 season was in jeopardy.
The precautions that Texas Tech is taking to keep Sorsby from gambling his life away is insanity. He has a staffer whose only job is to track his finances, and perform compliance checks. The college is also mandating treatment at a medical facility, group therapy, and moderation of his devices with gambling websites blocked. The cost to do this for a full season has got to be staggering, even for a program that’ll throw money at anything (except Mike Leach’s family).
What makes the program’s decision to go all-in on the transfer quarterback more baffling is that he’s not guaranteed to be elite in 2026. Sorsby won 12 games in two years as a starter at Cincinnati, and completed less than 62% of his passes in 2025. The Red Raiders have a much better roster than the Bearcats thanks to their NIL spending, but that might not matter if he doesn’t improve and turns out to be a distraction in Lubbock.
What usually gets lost in the discussion about Sorsby is that no NFL team will want any part of him because of his baggage. When asked about the Texas Tech QB, Browns coach Todd Monken stated “He put himself in that situation. And we’ve seen in other sports with players that have been banned for life from playing in professional sports.” Even if Sorsby puts together a good season and doesn’t regress back into gambling, he’s going to learn that actions have consequences, regardless of what a kangaroo court in Lubbock County rules.
