It’s early June in Lubbock, Texas, and tomorrow’s forecast high is 99 degrees. So naturally, the number one topic on everyone’s mind is college football. I’ve been there around this time of year and trust me, there ain’t much else of anything going on.
But they have a lot of eyes of lots of states well beyond Texas upon them today after news broke that once again the concept of Texas justice is alien to the rest of us cowpokes, as THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS” Stephen Hawkins reported:
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby has won a temporary injunction against the NCAA that allows him to remain eligible even after he acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets worth at least $90,000 on college and pro sports. Those include some bets on his own team when he was a freshman at Indiana. The court order sent shockwaves through college sports since one of the NCAA’s foundational rules, and one found in many professional sports as well, is the ability to ban players for gambling — especially those wagering on their own team. Big 12 Conference Commissioner Brett Yormark said the decision involving one of the league’s schools had caused “great concern amongst our membership” and scheduled an immediate meeting among athletic directors.
Sorsby has attempted to make himself a potential case study for redemption throughout this legal process that resulted in this victory, and shortly after the news was handed down he doubled down on that cosplay, as CLUTCH POINTS’ Troy Finnegan reported:
Hours after the final decision was made, Sorsby released a statement on the outcome, shared by Pete Thamel of ESPN. “I’m very grateful for the endless support I have received throughout this entire process,” Sorsby said in the statement. “I am also grateful for the chance to rejoin my teammates. 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.”
Texas Tech has stood behind Sorsby throughout the entire scandal, which included gambling on his own games while at Indiana while he was a redshirt back in 2022. However, reactions from the rest of the college football world have been overwhelmingly and understandably negative. The precedent that the ruling sets is a dangerous one for college sports, and it will be worth watching how that aspect of it plays out in the future.
Overwhelmingly negative is actually an understatement. The other leading voice in the Eastern part of Texas, the HOUSTON CHRONICLE, at least attempted to live up to its name by (ahem) chronicling a whole lotta reactions courtesy of its sports editor Eddie Maisonet:
Chron reached out to several college football programs across Texas about the Sorsby ruling. Many declined to comment, and one requested anonymity. Additional quotes from ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Max Olson have been used to paint a clear picture of how coaches and athletic leaders feel about the issue.
“We live in a world where the rules are met with excuses, and when we don’t get our way, we find a judge to buy and get them to be on our side,” said Prairie View A&M head coach Tremaine Jackson in a text to Chron.
So much for on-the-record honesty. And as Maisonet continued, the smoking guns sure look like six-shooters from this vantahe point:
It’s too far a stretch to suggest that the retired Judge Ken Curry, who hails from Tarrant County but was brought into Lubbock County for this case after District Court Judge Phillip Hayes—who holds two degrees from Texas Tech—recused himself, was paid to cook the books in Sorsby’s favor. His surprisingly lenient approach, combined with Sorsby’s financial backing from Jeffrey Kessler—who played a key role in establishing free agency in the NFL—indicated that a significant investment had been made to achieve the best possible outcome for the Red Raider football team.
And when one realizes the kind of money that is flowing through the program that possibility becomes all the more likely to an objective person. Witness the CV of one Cody Campbell, described via Wikipedia thusly:
Campbell, the Fort Worth–based oil and gas entrepreneur and Texas Tech booster, is estimated to have a net worth of about $30.8 billion in 2026. This places him among the wealthiest energy executives in the United States…He played as an offensive lineman for the Texas Tech Red Raiders and the Indianapolis Colts….Campbell’s wealth comes primarily from his oil and gas investments in the Permian Basin. He co‑founded Double Eagle Energy with childhood friend John Sellers, focusing on acquiring undervalued oil leases and assets before the market recognized their value daillycraze.com+1. The strategy involved disciplined asset acquisition, reinvestment of profits, and timing major sales to maximize returns.
In 49 other states, someone like Campbell might be investigated. In Texas–particularly in football-mad and anti-woke epicenters like Lubbock–he’s a white hat hero.
So when he chose to come out of the woodwork earlier today to voice his solution as Maisonet also reported, take this with an appropriate grain or ten thousand of Texas toast salt:
Campbell—wrote a lengthy op-ed in USA Today, that said federal legislation (known as the Protect College Sports Act) is the only hope of saving collegiate athletics in America….College sports system has been pleading with Congress to take action, to save it from its own inevitable demise,” Campbell wrote, with mention of the millions spent on trying to make things better. “The crisis is real—and the solutions have been hard fought.”
Sound like something that perhaps a certain billionaire sports fan might have been positing a few weeks ago when he assembled a whole buncha college presidents to address what he considers to be a national nightmare? You betcha.
Do recall Campbell is doing this in a state where somehow the lead candidate for a Senate seat just happens to be a dude named Ken Paxton, who’s got a rap sheet almost as lengthy as Sorsby. Yet in Texas–particularly West Texas–that’s someone who garners the majority of the vote and can get away with calling his opponent trans-gender.
So I’m not buying anything spewing from Campbell’s office, and I’m further questioning how legit the intentions of Yormark are. Yormark is fighting for Big 12 relevance as the behemoth Southeastern Conference has swallowed up both of Tech’s traditional rivals, Texas and Texas A&M. Their in-state conference rival is the University of Houston. Not a bad school, but hardly a football juggernaut then or now.
Right now Sorsby’s “penalty” will be to sit out the first two games of 2026–a cupcake opener against recent Group of Five ascender Abilene Christian and the face of the newly revived Pac 12, the Oregon State Beavers, coming off a vagabond 2-10 year. Methinks the Red Raiders might get through that gauntlet unscathed.
The level of disgust and concern around the country is strong and deserved. FRONT OFFICE SPORTS’ Amanda Christovich noted a few developments in her employer’s afternoon newsletter:
Athletic directors at two power conference schools—Georgia and Nebraska—have instructed their departments to refrain from scheduling Texas Tech in non-conference play in all sports. In addition, conferences will hold meetings to consider whether to boycott Texas Tech on a conference-wide level. Georgia AD Josh Brooks has called for a Texas Tech boycott, a spokesperson confirmed to FOS. So has Nebraska AD Troy Dannen, according to Yahoo Sports. Brooks later posted a statement on X saying: “True integrity means holding your program accountable when things go wrong, not buying custom legislation or running to a local courtroom to bypass the rules.” A spokesperson for Nebraska did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Texas, this is a punchline. Much like James Talarico’s hatred of meat. Campbell, Paxton, and for that matter Greg Abbott, deserve each other. I, for one, will be rooting for concussions. For Sorsby, I mean. I’m pretty sure I won’t be alone with those thoughts. You can bet on it. Just ask Brendan Sorsby for his tip sheet.
Courage..