Texas Tech doubles down
Thoughts on a dark week for college sports
Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Happy Auer. We’ve got a lot to discuss!
A Texas judge ruled on Monday that a quarterback who has admitted to betting on his own team in the past can play college football this fall for Texas Tech. Yes, you read that right. A few additional details that matter: Brendan Sorsby, who bet on Indiana football while a member of the team in fall 2022, placed more than 9,000 wagers and spent more than $90,000 on sports bets over the past four years. Betting on your own team is, obviously, against NCAA rules. So is betting on other teams at your school (which he did) and betting on your own sport (which he also did).
The NCAA correctly ruled Sorsby permanently ineligible. He appealed. Separately, he filed a lawsuit to try to get eligible that way … and it worked. We’ve seen this time and time again — a player breaks an NCAA rule or wants to stay in college until he’s 35 years old, so he sues. The lawsuit gets filed in state court (not federal) and finds its way in front of a friendly judge. And that judge decides to do what’s best for the home team, not what’s best for college sports.
I wrote that it’s important to have consequences for a player who bet on his own team. Everyone knows that is a cardinal rule. Everyone knows you aren’t supposed to do it, because it causes the rest of us to question the integrity of the competition itself. That’s not to say that Sorsby should never play football again; he just shouldn’t play college football again. He’s lucky he played as long as he did without getting caught, actually.
But as it stands now, Sorsby will miss two games and be eligible to return for Texas Tech’s Week 3 game against Houston, one of the Red Raiders’ biggest games of the season. I don’t even think that counts as a slap on the wrist!
The argument Sorsby and his lawyers have made is that he is recovering from a gambling addiction and dealing with an anxiety disorder, which means he needs to be in a structured environment and surrounded by support. For some reason, they’re also arguing that he’s entitled to play in games on Saturdays, even though he could be supported in his recovery in a structured environment by being part of the program and attending practices. No one is forcing Texas Tech to play a quarterback who should be ineligible. But we all know they’re going to play him if they can.
That’s why everyone outside of Lubbock is so mad. Other football players found to have violated NCAA sports gambling rules in the past dealt with the NCAA directly and accepted their punishments. They didn’t make a mockery of actual mental health issues by trying to use it as a get-out-of-jail-free card. They didn’t go running to the courts to overturn a decision they didn’t like, even when they are part of the NCAA and being part of an organization like that is agreeing to adhere to its rules.
It’s been a dark week for those of us who care about college sports at large — and not just about this one upcoming football season for Texas Tech. Because the Red Raiders and their fans do not seem to understand that people aren’t jealous of their rise to prominence; people are upset that they’re trying to play a quarterback who would make us question the fairness of their football games. If Sorsby throws two picks in the first half of a game, we’ll all wonder if he had money on the Tech under — even if Sorsby says he didn’t/wouldn’t bet on games he played in. That’s not good for anybody. (At Indiana, he once bet the under for Hoosiers’ passing yardage, and he also bet the first-half under of another game.)
Predictably, even with such great backlash from all corners of college sports, Texas Tech doubled down on its defense of Sorsby and its efforts to make him eligible for the fall.
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire spoke at the Houston Touchdown Club and chose to say this: “For some reason, as a society, we’ve been OK with other things that happen and allowing players to play, and this has been the one thing that has united people, that they were against. It’s crazy because it’s not murder, it’s not beating somebody — so there’s a lot of things that we’re working through. None of this is OK.”
Billionaire booster Cody Campbell, clearly ignoring whatever PR advice he’d been given, said this on Outkick: “There are kids that are playing that have gotten DUIs, that have beaten up women, kids that have committed horrible acts. You know, I mean, nobody boycotted playing Penn State a few years ago when that horrible situation happened there. … If this had happened at LSU, people would say, ‘Ah, it’s LSU. They’re always going to do what they do.’ But it happened at Texas Tech, and people don’t want to compete with us.”
Whataboutism is not a defense strategy. And, for the record, for as horrible as some of the examples given are, they did not impact the integrity of the actual competition itself. Betting on your own team does. That’s why this is different, and the feigned shock is not helping anyone.
We’ll see where this ends up, but I’m certainly hoping that Sorsby gets the support and treatment he needs while not seeing the field this fall. If we can’t trust that a sporting event is fair, what’s the point?
What I’ve been up to:
A lot! I’ve been traveling quite a bit. My husband, Jeff, and I celebrated our one-year anniversary last month in Cape May — where we got married — and we also did a long weekend in the Cayman Islands back in the spring. I’ve also officially joined the charity golf circuit, playing at the Golic SubPar Classic in South Bend for the third time and making my first (but not last) trip to Charlottesville for Chris Long’s Waterboys event. If you need a gal to golf at one of your events, hit me up! I will say yes!
I went to out to California for Big Ten spring meetings and then to Florida for the SEC’s. Everyone has lots of thoughts about College Football Playoff expansion, Senate bills, self-governance and other topics. We always joke that media day season is “talking season,” so let’s call spring meeting season “complaining season.” Because that’s really what it is.
I also wrote about NCAA Tournament expansion and the idea of “fixing” something that isn’t broken.
Joshua Perry and I devoted our entire episode of Rushing The Field this week to the Sorsby ruling and its fallout. You can listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Or, you can watch us on YouTube (or in the clips below).
Our initial reactions to the Sorsby ruling:
What the Big 12 can — and should — do in response:
And, finally: Why the rest of college sports is so upset:
Friendly reminder that Joshua and I put out weekly episodes in the offseason! Please subscribe and listen! I’ll have some exclusive interviews with coaches on the feed soon as well.
One additional scheduling note: I’ll be the pool-deck reporter for the upcoming TYR Pro Swim Series event in Indianapolis. We’ll be on Peacock on June 18 & 19. I’ll also be covering Nationals and the Pan Pacific Championships later this summer — will send out broadcast info as we get closer to them, too!