There’s new news every day regarding the Texas Tech football team and the ongoing saga surrounding Brendan Sorsby.
Here’s a full rundown of everything that has happened to this point, from Sorsby hitting the transfer portal and on with all the key facts, dates and happenings.
This file will be updated with the latest developments as we get closer to the start of the football season. Here’s the story to this point.
Latest news regarding Brendan Sorsby’s gambling, injunction and Texas Tech football
This section will be updated with the latest news as it comes.
July 8: Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield alleged Texas Tech was among the schools that reached out to then-Bearcats quarterback Brendan Sorsby about a transfer before the 2025 season ended in violation of NCAA tampering rules.
“We had already heard that schools had reached out — Texas Tech in particular had already reached out — with four games left,” Satterfield told The Athletic. The report said Sorsby’s agent, Ron Slavin, denied hearing from other teams during the season.
July 8: Yahoo Sports reported the NCAA has sent a letter of inquiry to Cincinnati regarding Sorsby’s time at the school. Sorsby has acknowledged violating the NCAA’s rules against sports gambling during his two years with the Bearcats. A UC spokesperson told Yahoo Sports that its athletics department officials were unaware of any impermissible sports wagering.
July 7: Commissioner Brett Yormark refused to engage after the first question posed to him at Big 12 media days in Frisco was about the Sorsby situation. “Today’s not the time to address that issue,” Yormark said from the stage at The Star. “Today is about celebrating the upcoming football season and celebrating our 16 schools.”
June 23: The general counsel for the NFL sent a letter to all 32 teams and Sorsby, notifying the former Texas Tech quarterback that the league will not hold a supplemental draft this summer. The league advises Sorsby that 2027 will be his earliest chance to play in the NFL.
June 19: ESPN, citing an unnamed source, reported the Big 12 was in no rush to withdraw its federal lawsuit because questions remained about potential fallout. An unnamed Big 12 athletics director told ESPN could still consider punitive ramifications for Texas Tech, particularly in regard to legal fees. “Is it right for all 16 schools to share in those legal fees,” the AD said, “when we didn’t have anything to do with starting it?”
June 18: Sorsby dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA, making him ineligible again. He had to be ineligible to be able to petition the NFL for a supplemental draft.
June 15, 8:16 p.m.: In a three-page letter, Texas Tech System Regents Chairman Cody Campbell announced that Sorsby will not be part of the Texas Tech football team this fall.
“This decision was made with Brendan and his family and is purely an output of practical analysis of the situation,” Campbell wrote. “Brendan and Texas Tech stand on very solid and legitimate legal ground, but he faces a June 22nd deadline to be eligible to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft, and there is no practical way to resolve all the various pending legal disputes and ensure his eligibility prior to this date.”
June 15, 3:58 p.m.: The Big 12 Conference Board of Directors released a statement about its filed legal complaint, saying in part, “Universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics.” It also states that the board “continues to keep all options on the table.”
June 15, 12:32 p.m.: Another state attorney general is backing the Big 12. This time it’s Derrek Brown and Utah Governor Spencer Cox sending a letter of support for the conference’s fight against Texas Tech.
June 15, 11:01 a.m.: Yahoo Sports reports the Big 12 has filed its emergency motion for an expedited appeal ruling in the Sorsby case. The NCAA has asked for a decision to be made by Aug. 29, the start of the college football season.
June 15, 10:25 a.m.: Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has joined the Oklahoma AG in offering help to the Big 12 as it looks to punish Texas Tech via the league’s bylaws.
June 15, 9:57 a.m.: ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that the Big 12 has filed a complaint in federal court in Dallas seeking a declaratory judgment, citing the First Amendment, to allow the conference to enforce its bylaws and punish Texas Tech for its apparent willingness to let Sorsby play. According to a portion of the document, the Big 12 wants to impose sanctions on Texas Tech “if TTU fields a student-athlete in Big 12 competitions who has engaged in collegiate sports betting activity.”
June 12: Oklahoma attorney general Gentner Drummond sent a letter to the Big 12 asking the conference to sanction Texas Tech, saying, “My office stands ready to assist the Big 12 if Texas Tech’s leadership attempts to punish the Conference for doing the right thing.”
June 11 (evening): Texas Tech leaders posted a 21-minute video discussing all matters surrounding the Sorsby saga, the roundtable panel including Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire, athletics director Kirby Hocutt, senior associate athletics directors Grant Stovall and Robert Giovannetti and Texas Tech University president Lawrence Schovanec.
June 11 (afternoon): Attorney General Ken Paxton sends a letter to the Big 12 Conference warning of potential litigation should the conference look to punish Texas Tech for playing Sorsby. Sorsby attorney Jeffrey Kessler also sent a letter to the Big 12 warning the conference not to interfere as it “would violate and be in contempt of the Order”.
June 11 (morning): Commissioner Brett Yormark meets with the Big 12 executive committee to talk through Texas Tech’s position on Sorsby and whether leaders of other conference schools want to impose sanctions. The full Big 12 board of directors is scheduled to meet on June 15. Conference bylaws allow sanctions of a conference member by supermajority vote.
June 9: Joey McGuire says during a function at the Touchdown Club of Houston that Sorsby playing in Week 3 against Houston “is still a stretch” as Sorsby deals with his gambling addiction.
June 8 (afternoon): Backlash quickly followed Sorsby being granted his injunction. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported that Big 12 Conference athletic directors have discussed possible repercussions for Texas Tech. Kansas State AD Gene Taylor is quoted as calling it “(expletive)ing bull(expletive).” Meanwhile, Georgia and Nebraska both instructed their athletic teams to not schedule Texas Tech in any capacity. Georgia AD Josh Brooks said, “I think there needs to be serious conversations about not playing Texas Tech in any sports.”
June 8 (morning): A week after the injunction hearing, Judge Ken Curry awarded Sorsby the injunction to retain his eligibility with Texas Tech football for the 2026 season. He says Sorsby’s legal team demonstrated a right to the injunction based “on his claims of breach of contract, declaratory judgment, breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing, and breach of fiduciary duty.” Part of Curry’s conditions were for Sorsby to serve a two-game suspension and that the NCAA is not able to rule him ineligible. The NCAA appealed the ruling to Amarillo’s 7th District Court of Appeals, and a trial is set for February.
June 5: The NCAA officially denied Texas Tech’s appeal to regain Sorsby’s eligibility.
June 1: The injunction hearing for Sorsby is held in Lubbock’s 99th District Court. Sorsby was not present. Arguments were made from both the NCAA and Sorsby’s legal team, headlined by Jeffrey Kessler, over the state of Sorsby’s gambling addiction and his eligibility. NCAA attorney Taylor Askew called Sorsby “a serial violator of the rules” while Kessler argued the NCAA was acting against its own principle in Sorsby’s case to not discriminate against or disparage an athlete because of his physical or mental health.
May 29: New court documents filed showed that Sorsby made at least 40 impermissible wagers on his Indiana football team or teammates during the first two months of the 2022 season and that Sorsby bet at least $90,000 over the past four years, including at least $5,000 since he transferred to Tech in January. With the NCAA having denied Sorsby’s reinstatement the week before, Tech files an appeal.
May 26: Texas Tech University president Lawrence Schovanec releases a letter supporting Brendan Sorsby’s return to campus from his stay at a residential treatment center to treat his gambling addiction. In the letter, Schovanec says the NCAA had issued an initial ruling making Sorsby permanently ineligible and that Texas Tech planned to appeal that decision. Schovanec says Tech will have a support structure in place to aide Sorsby’s ongoing recovery, including the Center for Students in Addiction Recovery that was established on the Tech campus in 1986.
May 22: The NCAA denies Texas Tech’s request for Sorsby’s reinstatement.
May 21: Retired Tarrant County judge Ken Curry is assigned as the new judge for Sorsby’s injunction hearing. Curry retired from the bench in 2012 and was assigned after Phillip Hays recused himself.
May 20: Judge Phillip Hays, who was originally assigned to Sorsby’s injunction hearing, files for recusal. Hays is a Texas Tech University and Law School alumnus. Hays later says “the integrity of the court needed to be upheld, and it shouldn’t be put out to public discussion as to whether the judge was biased in one way or another.”
May 19: Sorsby and his legal team file an injunction against the NCAA seeking to regain his eligibility.
May 18: Texas Tech announces that Sorsby has been declared ineligible and that the school planned to initiate the reinstatement process.
April 29: On3 reports that Sorsby had been linked to gambling since 2022 while ESPN reports that Sorsby had allegedly bet on Indiana during his time with the Hoosiers.
April 27: Texas Tech announces that Sorsby is taking a leave of absence to check himself into a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction. Shortly before Tech’s announcement, ESPN reported that Sorsby made “thousands of online bets on a variety of sports via a gambling app, which jeopardizes his eligibility with Texas Tech.”
April 18: Sorsby tosses four touchdowns, including the scrimmage-ender to Micah Hudson, in Texas Tech’s spring game.
April 14: The NCAA notifies Texas Tech of gambling allegations against Sorsby. Later court filings show the NCAA was alerted via law enforcement and an online sportsbook to Sorsby’s gambling, and that it continued after he joined the Red Raiders.
Feb. 25: A lawsuit is filed against Sorsby by the University of Cincinnati seeking a $1 million buyout from his previous revenue-sharing agreement with Cincinnati.
Jan. 17: Sorsby makes his first appearance at a Texas Tech basketball game, showing up for the Lady Raiders’ game against Kansas State. He was also courtside for men’s games against Houston (Jan. 24) and Cincinnati (Feb. 24) where he shared a pregame hug with Bearcats point guard Day Day Thomas.
Jan. 4, 2026: Three days after the transfer portal officially opened, Sorsby announced his commitment to Texas Tech.
Dec. 15, 2025: Long suspected to be a Texas Tech target, Brendan Sorsby announced his entry into the transfer portal after spending two years at Cincinnati.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Brendan Sorsby news: NCAA sends inquiry to Cincinnati, per report
Reporting by Nathan Giese and Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Nathan Giese and Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal | USA TODAY Network
