The NCAA said it would be forced to become the first major American sports league to allow an athlete who bet on their own games to continue to compete if a district court were to grant quarterback Brendan Sorsby an injunction allowing him to play for Texas Tech this season.
The NCAA laid out its opposition to Sorsby's request in a legal brief filed late Friday in district court in Lubbock, Texas, that revealed new details about law enforcement's involvement in the origin of the case and the scope of the embattled quarterback's betting. The NCAA also pushed back on Texas Tech's claims that it had intentionally delayed the investigation and had been insensitive to Sorsby's stint in gambling rehab.
A hearing on Sorsby's request for an injunction is scheduled for Monday in Lubbock.
Sorsby was diagnosed with gambling and anxiety disorders during a 35-day inpatient stay at a gambling rehabilitation center in Arizona, according to his attorneys. He is alleged to have placed thousands of bets during his college career at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech, according to legal documents.
"Brendan has a mental health condition that predisposed him to compulsively use predatory and addictive online gambling apps," attorney Scott Tompsett wrote in a letter to the NCAA that was included in court documents filed Friday.
The NCAA stated in its brief that Sorsby should be commended for seeking treatment and is free to continue his playing career elsewhere. Sorsby was a top target in the offseason transfer portal and considered an NFL prospect who could opt to enter the supplemental draft.
"But the NCAA Bylaws are clear that his college football career has come to an end," the NCAA wrote.
At Indiana, as a scout team and backup quarterback, Sorsby placed at least 2,900 bets, totaling more than $30,000 from June 2022 through December 2023, according to the documents. His bets included 40 on games involving the Hoosiers, but none on games in which he was involved or had a legitimate chance of playing, according to the documents. The NCAA alleged that Sorsby also placed parlay bets involving Indiana basketball games that included wagers "in favor of players on the opposing team."
Student-athletes are prohibited from betting on any NCAA-sanctioned sport, college or professional, and face permanent loss of eligibility if found to have wagered on games involving their own team or another team in a different sport at their school.
The NCAA has not found evidence of attempts to manipulate his performance or that inside information was used to place any of the bets, according to the documents. Sorsby's attorneys have asked the NCAA to treat his violations of the gambling policy as a mental health condition.
"[T]he high volume of Brendan's gambling was a direct result of his mental health disorder: an anxiety condition that manifested in compulsive gambling," Tompsett wrote.
In its filing, the NCAA wrote that it became aware of Sorsby's gambling on March 11 after receiving information from an online sportsbook that had been notified by law enforcement. The NCAA informed Texas Tech of its investigation April 14 and asked for phone and betting records and to interview Sorsby "to determine the full scope of his sports betting activity during his time as a student-athlete, including any integrity concerns."
"Contrary to Plaintiff's suggestions, however, the NCAA did not demand that he interrupt the residential treatment program he had begun weeks earlier," attorneys for the NCAA wrote. "Instead, enforcement staff made clear that 'interviewing during his residential treatment is not a condition of his responsibility to cooperate' and '[Plaintiff]'s health and treatment should be prioritized before any engagement with the enforcement staff.'"
The NCAA asserted that Sorsby's lawsuit attracted media attention and scrutiny "at the precise time he states he is undergoing treatment for a serious mental health condition."
Cincinnati received an alert on Sorsby's activity on daily fantasy site PrizePicks on Aug. 19, 2024, according to the documents. Sorsby spoke with the school's compliance team about the matter and received sports wagering education, according to the documents. In responding to a public records request from ESPN, the university said it had not received more than one alert for any individual student-athlete during Sorsby's time at the school.
The court filings show that Sorsby placed at least 165 bets, totaling at least $38,000, while at Cincinnati and transferred more than $60,000 to a friend to deposit in a sportsbook account they shared.
The NCAA wrote that granting Sorsby the injunction would have "broad-ranging and destabilizing ramifications."
"It would effectively sanction sports gambling by the most vulnerable student-athletes -- those suffering from a gambling addiction could continue to bet, knowing they could follow Plaintiff's lead and rush to court if caught," NCAA attorneys wrote. "It would create unfair outcomes for the many student-athletes who have resisted the temptation to gamble, or who have gambled and been punished under the same rules Plaintiff now seeks to evade. ... And it would undermine the integrity of college athletics by rewarding conduct that is universally prohibited in American sports."
In November, NCAA membership voted to rescind a proposed rule amendment that would have allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports. Texas Tech, according to the NCAA, was among the schools that voted to rescind the rule.
Information from ESPN's Mark Schlabach was used in this report.
