The NCAA’s Brendan Sorsby situation is reaching far beyond just sports.
Now politicians are getting involved in his potential ability to play football for Texas Tech this season.
Just days after Texas attorney general Ken Paxton threatened the Big 12 for trying to take action against Texas Tech, the Oklahoma attorney general has thrown his hat into the ring.
Oklahoma AG calls on Big 12 to suspend Brendan Sorsby
In a letter written to Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark on Friday, Gentner Drummond called on the conference to suspend Sorsby, citing an argument that the temporary injunction granted to Sorsby applied only to the NCAA.
It does not, in Drummond’s mind, stop the Big 12 from issuing its own punishment.
From ESPN:
“[Texas Tech’s] actions in obtaining eligibility for Brendan Sorsby — an athlete the NCAA declared permanently ineligible for extensive wagering on college sports, including games involving his own team — have constituted a shameful chapter in the story of college football,” Drummond wrote. “Texas Tech has acted in a manner adverse to the Big 12 and the integrity of college football as a whole.”
Sorsby was ruled ineligible by the NCAA after it was found that he placed on bets on several college sports, including games that his team had played in.
In an effort to keep his eligibility, Sorsby sued the NCAA and was granted a temporary injunction last week by a Texas judge. That ruling, combined with the way Texas Tech has gone to bat for Sorsby and fought back against any criticism, has made the program one of the biggest pariahs in college sports.
The whole thing just seems completely unsustainable.
Allowing a player who has bet on games his team has played (whether he actually played in them or not) just can’t be something that is normalized or approved.
In the history of organized sports, it never has been.
Opening that pandora’s box would be a crushing blow to sports at all levels.
The distractions that player will bring are also going to be enormous, and we are already seeing it as attorney generals across the country start to battle it out.
