Brendan Sorsby’s Return Ensures 2026 College Football Season Will Be Defined by One Theme

Everyone loves a good villain. And there’s a new cast of antagonists coming to fields near you this fall.

A Lubbock County judge on Monday awarded Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby an injunction that will allow him to play in 2026. | Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Everybody loves a good villain. If there’s one thing that grasps interest, one theme that sells, it is a good villain. It’s true of movies—think the menacing, intimidating force that was Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise—and it’s true of sports, where the love-to-hate vibe is ubiquitous.

And few sports love to hate more than college football, which has long been home to fearsome rivalries, where enmity on the field is underscored by loathing amongst the opposing fan bases. Through it all, villains take centerstage and come in all shapes and sizes.

For years in the 2000s and 2010s, a fastidious villain paced the sidelines and rolled the tides in Tuscaloosa, trampling everything in its path in the SEC en route to six national championships. Years before that in the 1980s, a villain wore a bleached-blond mullet, roamed the middle of the field for the Oklahoma Sooners and delivered bone-crunching hits with a snarl.

So yes, college football loves a good villain. And there’s a new cast of characters coming to fields near you this fall.

The developments of Monday morning made sure of that.

Brendan Sorsby’s injunction cements 2026 college football season as the year of the villain

U.S. District Court of Lubbock County judge Ken Curry on Monday awarded quarterback Brendan Sorsby, whom the NCAA had ruled ineligible due to his widespread gambling on Hoosiers games during his time with Indiana, a temporary injunction against the NCAA, which will allow the embattled signal-caller to take the field for Texas Tech in 2026.

The Red Raiders, from their deep NIL pockets to bombastic booster and board chair Cody Campbell to their tensions with Tennessee on the softball fields, have already been comfortable in the villain role for quite some time.

That’s good news, because if Sorsby is indeed allowed to take the field in 2026, he and the Red Raiders will be met with thunderous boos, NSFW chants and fan-made signs dripping with scorn and sarcasm wherever they go. Whether it’s the school’s hypocritical stance on the NCAA’s gambling bylaws, Sorsby’s seeming skirting of consequences or Sorsby’s lawyers playing out his case with a literal home-field advantage in Lubbock County, there are plenty of reasons for opposing fans to love to hate Sorsby and the Red Raiders. Factor in that the team is likely to be among the contenders for a national title and voilà, you have the perfect villain.

But, believe it or not, there’s an even better antagonist out there.

Lane Kiffin remains college football’s biggest villain in 2026

Kiffin has long been college football’s ultimate bad guy, but his stunning exit from Ole Miss might just be his magnum opus in that regard. What could stoke the embers of dislike more than resigning your position after a 7-6 season, leading to the burning of mattresses and the ruination of Kiffin shirts from angry fans, as occurred during his exit from Tennessee in 2010, you ask? Kiffin openly courting interest from SEC rivals LSU and Florida while coaching a College Football Playoff contender in Ole Miss, then angering the fan base—and his former players—by leaving said CFP contender he helped build. That’s what. Sure, Kiffin’s exit was somewhat a product of college football’s nonsensical calendar. But that’s not how opposing fans, especially scorned Ole Miss fans, will see it.

Mark the date Sept. 19 on your calendars, because that’s the day Kiffin, wearing enemy colors, will once again step foot in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to a vitriol perhaps at a level that hasn’t been seen in years.

Undoubtedly, there will be other villains. Texas’s Steve Sarkisian, fighting petty wars on two fronts with Ole Miss and yes, Texas Tech, has made no friends among his peers this offseason. National title contenders—and perennially-hated teams—Ohio State and Notre Dame will continue to be perennially hated for various reasons. New villains and new themes will emerge.

Welcome to the 2026 college football season, the year of the villain, where, to quote a certain evil emperor, the hate will flow through.

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