Brendan Sorsby Legal Filing Shows How He’ll Fight for NCAA Eligibility Amid Gambling Probe

When Texas Tech lured quarterback Brendan Sorsby away from Cincinnati in the transfer portal, it had designs on competing for the national championship.

On April 27, that plan fell apart—for the time being. Sorsby shocked the college football world with an announcement that he would seek treatment for a gambling addiction, with the NCAA indicating on the same day that it would investigate thousands of bets on sports Sorsby allegedly made online in recent years.

Sorsby, however, is not giving up his NCAA eligibility without a fight. On Monday, he filed for an injunction in a Texas district court with the goal of playing for the Red Raiders in 2026.

Sorsby will follow a blueprint familiar to those who’ve beaten the NCAA in court: highlighting the organization’s perceived hypocrisy

The quarterback’s attorneys—Jeffrey Kessler and Scott Tompsett, two leading lights in American sports law—in effect accused the NCAA of punishing Sorsby for a mental-health disorder while profiting from the gambling gold rush that has reshaped sports this decade.

“The NCAA has weaponized his condition to shore up a facade of competitive integrity, while simultaneously profiting from the very gambling ecosystem it polices,” Kessler and Tompsett wrote in their filing, acquired by Sports Illustrated.

Similar arguments have driven legal action against the NCAA for decades, and have successfully hacked away at the organization’s hyper-strict definition of amateurism. Whether it can win a gambling case is another matter entirely, and it is telling that the filing asks solely for eligibility in ’26.

“The NCAA will suffer no cognizable harm from letting Mr. Sorsby play football while this case proceeds. But if this Court does not act, no future judgment can give Mr. Sorsby what the NCAA will have taken from him,” the quarterback’s lawyers said in the filing.

On the field, a lot is on the line for both Sorsby and Texas Tech

Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire on the sidelines against the Oregon Ducks. — A year after falling to Oregon during the College Football Playoff game at the Orange Bowl, coach Joey McGuire and Texas Tech added Brendan Sorsby, one of the top quarterbacks in the transfer portal. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The key date for Sorsby is June 15—the day by which he has requested a hearing be held. The reason? The deadline to enter a hypothetical NFL supplemental draft is a week later, on June 22.

“The NCAA’s delay in processing my reinstatement application will deprive me of
the opportunity to make an informed decision about whether to enter the NFL supplemental draft,” Sorsby said in an affidavit attached to the lawsuit. It is worth noting that the NCAA told Justin Williams of The Athletic it had not received any such application.

Sorsby, a coveted name in the transfer portal this offseason, would presumably garner significant interest from NFL teams if a supplemental draft takes place. He’s coming off a strong junior year with the Bearcats where he threw for 2,800 yards and 27 touchdowns against five interceptions, while adding nine scores on the ground.

Texas Tech, meanwhile, is looking to build on a breakthrough 2025 campaign. Flush with cash, the Red Raiders went 12–2 (their best record since 1973) and finished No. 7 in the country (their highest end-of-season AP ranking ever). Their shutout 23–0 loss to Oregon in the Orange Bowl, however, showed that there’s more work to be done for Texas Tech to consistently tussle with the nation’s elite.

One of those missing pieces is stability at the quarterback position. In the near term, it seems to be in the hands of the law to provide it.

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