Brendan Sorsby Makes Michigan the End of an Era

Michigan may have been the last team to suffer serious consequences from the NCAA as a legitimate enforcer of rules regarding college football.

When Michigan bent a knee

In 2025, the NCAA, as punishment for the program’s and individual actors’ involvement in the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal, sanctioned Michigan football and delivered show-causes for four Michigan staff members implicated in the scheme.

Stalions, alongside Denard Robinson, Jim Harbaugh, and then head coach Sherrone Moore were each named in the NCAAs ruling, with Stalions, Robinson, and Harbaugh each restricted from collegiate athletics for varying periods of time while Moore was only suspended for three games - two of which were assigned by Michigan itself before the NCAAs determination.

Jim — Melanie Maxwell / USA TODAY NETWORK

The program itself was levied substantial financial penalties totaling over $30 million in addition to myriad recruitment restrictions.

Though the NCAA stopped short of imposing the harshest punishments in its repertoire - notably, Michigan avoided a postseason ban, more serious roster constraints, and, to the loud dismay of some vocal Michigan attackers, the death penalty - Michigan still sustained significant losses for their actions.

Moore — Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Even at the onset of the scandal in 2023, the NCAA’s image was not that of a commanding, authoritative regulatory body. Cracks had already begun to surface, pundits had already deemed the college sports governing body toothless, and the NCAA’s legitimacy crisis was well underway.

Yet, despite that shrinking status, Michigan still had to bend the knee and cough up its money - now as likely the last team to ever feel compelled to do so.

Sorsby has crippled the NCAA

That’s because of the outcome of the Brendan Sorsby case.

Sorsby, a transfer quarterback seeking to play at Texas Tech this year, made dozens of bets on games in which he played for a team involved - betting against his team more than once in doing so. However, despite having been caught red-handed committing the cardinal sin of the sports world, Sorsby will all but assuredly play for the Red Raiders this upcoming season.

NCAA officially files 'accelerated appeal' in Brendan Sorsby case

📸 Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal, Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images https://t.co/iWfIlCSce6 pic.twitter.com/68bruJaqtx
— Red Raiders Wire (@RedRaidersWire) June 8, 2026

An injunction order from a local judge has prevented the NCAA from acting against Sorsby until a lengthy legal process plays out, the in-court outcome of which is rendered meaningless as Sorsby only has one year of eligibility left anyways and will be finished with the season by the time a decision with staying power is made.

It is a stunning and unprecedented decision, one which effectively neuters the NCAA and its ability to effectively oversee and administer the sport it claims to govern. In an era of expanding horizons for college sports, the outdated and exhausted NCAA framework was already tottering - a judge in Lubbock, Texas just delivered a death blow.

Moving forward, the NCAA institution will either retool and somehow integrate itself once more into the rapidly accelerating college football landscape or it will continue to fade as a shell of its former self which no team or conference takes all that seriously.

After the sign-stealing incident, the Wolverines were more than happy to call it a day, retain their national title from 2023 and program infrastructure, and cough up a pretty penny to the four letter acronym in the sky. Had that investigation unfolded today, let alone five years in the future, Michigan could likely have beaten back the NCAA and their demands.

Indirectly, Brendan Sorsby makes Michigan a bookmark of the era of legitimate, enforceable NCAA rule in college football.

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