The controversy and consternation caused by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s probe into gambling by athletes at two of our state universities was well-earned back in 2023.
The question of appropriateness for how the investigation was initiated and later executed certainly takes top billing. How athletic departments at Iowa and Iowa State educated their student-athletes about the ramifications of sports gambling was up there, too. Not far behind were the onerous punishments for players who bet on pro sports, different schools playing their own sport or other sports at their own schools. Punishments, I should mention, which were nearly immediately altered when news of our state’s situation came to light.
What did not generate controversy, consternation or even questions, however, were the punishments doled out to players who bet on their own teams.
No one, as far as I remember, felt that Hunter Dekkers, Jirehl Brock, Aaron Blom or Isaiah Lee were done dirty by the NCAA. The state, maybe, but not by those in charge of college football.
Because, I think, they weren’t. The misdeeds earned the punishment. Few things in this world of college sports can be considered sacrosanct anymore, but betting on your own games, well, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who believed the answer for that was anything other than permanent banishment.
Which is, I guess, still true, as I have never met U.S. District Court Judge Ken Curry.
His Honor, though, apparently feels different than the rest of what seems to be the entire sporting universe.
Judge Curry granted an injunction on Monday, June 8, that paves the way for Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby to play this season despite being permanently banned by the NCAA for placing impermissible sports wagers, most notably up to 40 on Indiana football when Sorsby was a member of the Hoosiers’ program.
Which is, I gotta say, pretty bad for college sports.
The ruling sounds like it was written with the logic of a parent who lets their kids drink in their basement. Or maybe by someone who works in the participation trophy industry.
Sorsby, if banned, would lose the “benefit of the elite coaching, training resources, camaraderie, and regimen” of being a Division I athlete as well as the opportunity to “build the skills necessary to maximize his own success … as well as that of Texas Tech’s football team,” Curry wrote in his decision.
Yeah, man. That’s kind of the whole point.
See: Reaping, sowing; making a bed, lying in it; (messing) around; finding out.
He’s worried about Sorsby losing the camaraderie of college football? Or Texas Tech’s ability to win football games?
Again: That’s the entire idea. Hit ‘em where it hurts.
The ruling reads, to me, something more like, “Just let our boys go out and sling the dang pigskin, y’all,” rather than serious rumination on the matter at hand.
It’s worth noting that Sorsby’s wagers on his own team are not allegations. He has admitted in court documents to making those bets.
Wagering on your own games is of such consequence and damage to the sport that the consequence for running afoul of this inviolable rule – not the NCAA’s but from the sporting gods themselves – cannot be short of banishment.
The punishment has to be severe enough to put the fear of those sporting gods into anyone who might consider committing this cardinal sin. It also has to reinforce the belief of the sporting faithful that these games are on the up-and-up.
The only consequence that fits both is permanent exile.
I can’t think of many mitigating circumstances that would offer any other option.
Certainly, Sorsby’s does not.
I have quite a bit of empathy for Sorsby, who says a gambling addiction made the tens of thousands of dollars he bet on sports a compulsion. Addiction is a real and devastating disease, whatever form it takes. I commend him for admitting his problem and seeking treatment to address the issue. I truly and wholeheartedly hope he gets the help he needs and lives the rest of his life without the burden that addiction can place upon people – both those who suffer from it and those close to them.
I do not, though, believe that his gambling addiction should relieve him of culpability and accountability, and the only way to satisfy both of those in this instance is for him to never play another down of college football.
Even if that costs him camaraderie and Texas Tech, victories.
That’s also an option available to Texas Tech here, I should add. The Red Raiders don’t have to play Sorsby. They didn’t have to cheer on and facilitate this farce. They could have put their arms around Sorsby, told him he could stay on scholarship, be a part of Red Raider football and help him rebuild the structure of his life from the sideline.
But that would probably mean winning fewer football games, so, of course, that’s not going to happen.
And while I’m casting blame about, the NCAA deserves mention here, too. The organization is 100% in the right, in my estimation, in banning Sorsby and continuing to pursue that remedy, but it holds responsibility for how it found itself such a delectable legal target.
Instead of giving some ground – and cash – to student-athletes as the industry ballooned with TV dollars and dissolved the thin pretense of amateurism with conference realignment, the NCAA refused to budge an inch. If it had, NCAA vs. Alston may have never made it to the Supreme Court, a case that basically invited all comers to sue the NCAA in its unanimous decision against the regulatory body in that case.
By refusing to recognize the reality of its situation – that players critical in generating these billions of dollars are morally entitled to a real piece of it – the NCAA lost what it prized perhaps even more than money – control.
So here we are, a new low point that seems destined to be surpassed by a new nadir as the very parties that helped set these rules look for new and fun ways to break them.
Shame doesn’t win football games, y’all.
Plenty of folks around here felt that the Iowa and Iowa State athletes ensnared in the gambling probe were treated unfairly. By the DCI. By prosecutors. By the state government at large.
None, though, felt those who bet on their own teams and games were dealt an injustice by being forced out of the sport, best as I can tell. There was an acknowledgement that, however the facts came to light, they were still the facts, and that the punishment was unavoidable.
They weren’t wrong then, and they aren’t wrong now.
Iowa State columnist Travis Hines has covered the Cyclones for the Des Moines Register and Ames Tribune since 2012. Contact him at thines@amestrib.com or (515) 284-8000. Follow him on X at @TravisHines21.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Brendan Sorsby escapes punishment that came for Cyclones, Hawkeyes | Hines
Reporting by Travis Hines, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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By Travis Hines, Des Moines Register | USA TODAY Network
