The coach saw the text message from a reporter and couldn’t believe it.He had to Google it to make sure it wasn’t a joke. It was not.A Lubbock County court granted Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby an injunction Monday morning that upholds a two-game suspension for betting on college sports, including placing bets on his own team while he was on Indiana’s roster in 2022.“What are we doing with that ruling? I mean, seriously?” he said.NCAA rules stipulate the penalty for betting on your team is permanent loss of eligibility, but that rule was superseded by the court Monday, upholding a two-game suspension that was offered by Sorsby’s representation, led by Jeffrey Kessler.“Gambling is one of the rules in sports that’s one of the few rules that exist where, if you break it, you are now basically getting blackballed from the sport,” said one Group of 6 head coach. “And now one of the harshest rules you can break, he did it, and he can still play. To me, this is one of the worst things I’ve seen in 20 years of coaching.”The Athletic spoke with 12 head coaches around college football on Monday, including multiple Big 12 head coaches, about the ruling after it was announced. They were granted anonymity so they could speak candidly.“Unbelievable,” said one Power 4 head coach.“If gambling isn’t punishable. What is?” said another Power 4 head coach.One Group of 6 coach expressed surprise at the decision, calling it “wild.”“That’s f—ing crazy! Beyond wild,” said a Power 4 head coach. “We have some serious problems that if they don’t get fixed — the entire thing is going to implode. Soon.”Another Group of 6 head coach called it “egregious” and said it sends a bad message to everyone in the sport.One Group of 6 head coach said he didn’t want players gambling on college football but said he was OK with the ruling because Sorsby’s bets “didn’t impact the outcome of any game or season.”Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt said the university remains committed to supporting Sorsby’s recovery after he was released from a monthlong inpatient rehab for gambling addiction earlier this offseason.“As we have said before, we do not believe that the circumstances of Brendan’s case warranted permanent ineligibility,” Hocutt said. “A comprehensive support structure, including clinical care, monitoring, and compliance checks, will remain fully in place for the duration of Brendan’s time as a student at Texas Tech.”Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell, who has been heavily involved in efforts to reshape college sports’ rulebook on Capitol Hill, called “the unfortunate situation” an “outcome of a broken system.“Texas Tech and its student athletes have to do the best they can to navigate and compete amid the chaos that exists in the reality of the world we live in,” he said.One coach drew a comparison to the NCAA penalties handed down at Iowa and Iowa State, which included Cyclones starting quarterback Hunter Dekkers, whose career ended after an investigation revealed he bet on 26 Iowa State events, including a 2021 Iowa State football game. Like Sorsby, Dekkers admitted to gambling on his team.“I would contact (Iowa State athletic director) Jamie Pollard and see his thoughts after he lost players,” one Power 4 head coach said.“So I guess we can just gamble on our own team now and get away with it? That’s crazy,” said one all-conference Power 4 player.The biggest concern isn’t so much what Sorsby being allowed to play means for him; it’s what it might mean for the future of the sport when the simplest rule in any sport is violated, and the response is a slap on the wrist.“It speaks to the power of attorneys and politics and the lack of control the NCAA has over governance,” one Power 4 coach said. “Betting on your own teams or sport has always been a death penalty. But now it’s overlooked?”“What is the purpose of the NCAA?” one Group of 6 coach said. “I don’t understand anything about their purpose anymore if a guy can do what he just did, blatantly break the rules, go gamble, and he can get a judge in a local area to sign off, and he can go play football? I just think it puts us one step closer to the Power 4 or certain teams in the Power 4 separating and having their own governing body.”The NCAA said in a statement Monday it “strongly disagrees” with the ruling and is concerned about the “damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications” of the court outcome that “undermines and corrupts the integrity of sports.”“There is no better example of why targeted intervention from Congress is necessary. When you have schools and deep-pocketed supporters willing to look the other way on the glaring integrity threat of betting on your own team — and judges whose rulings effectively strip away our ability to stop them — only Congress can equip the NCAA to apply this common sense rule to everyone fairly and consistently,” NCAA president Charlie Baker wrote on X Monday afternoon. “The Protect College Sports Act would empower the NCAA to enforce rules including the gambling restrictions — it’s needed now more than ever.”