Brendan Sorsby Won an Injunction That Will Let Him Play for Texas Tech This Year

The world of college athletics has changed a lot over the past decade, and it's come at the same time that we have seen a surge in sports betting. Those two trends combined in the person of Brendan Sorsby, a quarterback at Texas Tech who spent years placing bets on games, including ones on teams that he was on.

The NCAA has sought to prevent Sorsby from playing precisely because of these bets, and because he's admitted to having a gambling addiction. Now, though, a judge has ruled that he'll be allowed to. Here's what we know.

Judge Ken Curry issued a three-page granting Sorsby a temporary injunction that would allow him to play during the 2026 season. Sorsby, a remarkable talent, completed a 35-day inpatient treatment program for his addiction, but his legal troubles might not be behind him. Reporting suggests that the NCAA is planning to appeal the ruling to a higher court in the months before the season.

The facts of what Sorsby did are not in dispute. During his years with Indiana, Cincinatti, and Texas Tech, he placed more than $90,000 in bets in a clear violation of the NCAA's rule prohibiting exactly that. The NCAA apparently made repeated efforts to intervene, to no avail. In his decision, Curry said that Sorsby's legal team had "demonstrated that he will suffer a probable, imminent, and irreparable injury" if he is not allowed to play.

Sorsby did say that he had only made bets on positive outcomes for his own team, but that nevertheless is a violation of the NCAA rules around gambling. The NCAA issued a statement condemning the ruling:

"The NCAA strongly disagrees with the court's ruling in Sorsby's case and is deeply concerned about the damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications of this outcome — which undermines and corrupts the integrity of sports," the statement read.

"The NCAA is committed to supporting student-athlete mental health but must continue to aggressively defend against actions that defraud college athletics and threaten competitive integrity, such as betting on one's own sport," it continued.

Brendan also issued a statement in which he expressed gratitude for the support he'd received as he dealt with his addiction.

"I'm very grateful for the endless support I have received throughout this entire process. I am also grateful for the chance to rejoin my teammates," Sorsby wrote in a statement on Monday. "This opportunity comes with the responsibility to remain focused on my personal growth, the ability to learn from this experience, and to be able to use my situation to help others going forward."

While Sorsby's injunction might not be the end of the road, it's also a potential signal about how difficult it is for the NCAA to enforce some of the rules it has established for its own players. The league doesn't want Sorsby to take the field in the fall, but unless something changes, he will.