The NCAA has denied Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby’s request for reinstatement on Tuesday, leaving his eligibility status up to the courts.
Sorsby, who recently completed a 35-day rehab program in Goodyear, Ariz., for a gambling addiction, is not able to play college football because he violated the NCAA’s gambling rules. On May 18, he filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in the Lubbock, Texas, district court, requesting a temporary injunction to grant him eligibility for the 2026 season.
A hearing for Sorsby’s lawsuit is scheduled for June 1.
Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec wrote in a letter on Tuesday that the university would be appealing the NCAA’s decision (separate from Sorsby’s lawsuit), and that the quarterback would return to campus after his time at an “intensive inpatient treatment program.”
“The NCAA bylaws governing Brendan’s case have not adapted to the era of widespread legalized sports betting that this generation of college athletes now has to navigate,” Schovanec wrote. “He is not the first college athlete to face gambling addiction, and unfortunately, he will not be the last.”
