The word “unbelievable” has become so ingrained in college sports that I consulted a thesaurus to find an apropos adjective to describe Monday’s news that Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, despite his gambling on college sports (including his own team), will be allowed to play college football in the fall, for now.No one word seems strong enough. So how about all of this?Unconscionable. Reprehensible. Outrageous. Gross.With one three-page injunction order Monday, Judge Ken Curry of the 99th District Court in Lubbock County, Texas made the wrong kind of history. He allowed Texas Tech’s transfer quarterback to become the first known athlete in a major sport to admit to gambling on his own team (at Indiana, in 2022) and still be allowed to continue playing that sport.Curry apparently believes that the harm caused to Sorsby, were he deprived the ability to “benefit from the elite coaching, training resources, camaraderie and regimen that only being a member of a Division I college football team can provide,” is more damaging than the harm caused by setting a precedent that someone can bet on their own team — the cardinal sin of being an athlete — and receive no consequences besides missing games against Abilene Christian and Oregon State.Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, had to die before that sport would forgive him for betting on his own team. But a Big 12 quarterback? Two-game suspension.Former Iowa defensive tackle Noah Shannon saw his college career ended because he placed one legal bet on his school’s women’s basketball team, believed to be for less than $100. Sorsby placed at least 40 bets on Indiana football while still underage, and approximately $90,000 in sports wagers using other people’s sportsbook accounts, and will be back in time for the Red Raiders’ Big 12 opener against Houston.All because Curry bought plaintiff’s attorney Jeffrey Kessler’s specious argument that the NCAA was harming a recovering gambling addict’s welfare by enforcing a rule that every pro sports league in this country also enforces.Just how egregious is this decision? It may be the first time in college sports history in which 99.9 percent of the country sides with the NCAA.Meanwhile, shameless Texas Tech has twisted itself into knots attempting to defend the indefensible. In a May 26 open letter, university president Lawrence Schovanec had the audacity to argue, “The NCAA bylaws governing Brendan’s case have not adapted to the era of widespread legalized sports betting,” just months after his own school voted to overturn an NCAA policy change that would have allowed athletes to bet on pro sports.Hey, they’ve got a Big 12 championship to defend.It was one thing when we had federal judges (and in one case, the United States Supreme Court) taking on class-action cases that attacked the NCAA’s broader amateurism model. College athletes were finally able to profit off their own name, image and likeness through a series of fully formed decisions resolving years-long crusades.What we’ve seen in the last few years is something different entirely: One aggrieved athlete in one particular district finds a judge who hastily grants them an emergency injunction due to the specifics of their case. But then that one decision sets a precedent that has broader consequences for the entire industry.See: Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia suing to get his year of juco eligibility back. Or Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss suing to retroactively receive a medical redshirt for a Division II season in which he never applied for a medical redshirt. Or any number of former professional basketball players who’ve been granted college eligibility despite being textbook cases for why there’s a rule denying them eligibility.But the potential consequences in Sorsby’s case are more severe. Allowing someone who bet on his own team to keep playing college football affects the integrity of the competitions themselves. The kind of threat pro sports leagues take so seriously that they ban players for life if they get caught.The NCAA’s gambling rules are supposed to be a deterrent for potential future offenders. Curry just gave them a flashing green light.Kessler — he of Alston and House fame — argued that Sorsby should be treated with sympathy because he sought help for his addiction. I’m sympathetic, but being stricken with an addiction is not supposed to give one license to break firmly entrenched rules he agreed to upon starting college.Case in point: Back in 2015, then-USC coach Steve Sarkisian lost his job due to behavioral incidents stemming from substance abuse. At a preseason event for fans, he could be heard slurring his words and uttering a profanity during a speech. Athletic director Pat Haden gave Sarkisian a reprieve at the time but later fired him after showing up at a team meeting while intoxicated.He sought treatment for alcohol addiction and later filed a $12.6 million wrongful termination suit, alleging he was discriminated against for having a disability. An arbitrator ruled against him, saying, “Sarkisian must bear sole responsibility for having actively concealed from USC his claimed disabilities.”Sorsby spent four years concealing his gambling habit from three different schools. By all accounts, he only came clean once law enforcement flagged his transactions, and an integrity monitor for the sportsbooks tipped off the NCAA.No matter. According to Curry, it’s more concerning that he could be deprived of the ability to showcase himself to the NFL.Curry’s decision is not binding beyond his own district. But you have to believe it’s now going to get cited by anyone caught doing the same thing. Meanwhile, what a miserable season this is going to be with the public scrutinizing every Sorsby interception or errant pass for signs of malfeasance. It’s every sport’s worst nightmare if there’s even an appearance the outcome of the games can’t be trusted.The NCAA will immediately appeal Curry’s decision, and one can only hope an appellate court located outside of Lubbock will approach the same set of “facts” with more sensible logic. But nothing about our legal system gives me confidence, and the process could take so long that football season could come and go.