Could Brendan Sorsby End the NCAA’s “Pay-for-Play” Era?

Brendan Sorsby
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby Photo: John E. Moore III / Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
June 8, 2026

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Plenty of eyes are on Brendan Sorsby, the Texas Tech quarterback who scored a significant legal victory today. Represented by the nearly omnipresent Jeffrey Kessler, Sorsby persuaded a Texas judge to restore his college eligibility after the NCAA suspended him for wagering on everything from Romanian soccer matches and the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest to games involving his old team, the Indiana Hoosiers. The collegiate journeyman quarterback had argued that he was suffering from a gambling addiction and that the NCAA’s response was both punitive and hypocritical, given college sports’ deep entanglement with the betting ecosystem. A judge agreed, ruling that Sorsby would suffer irreparable injury and ordering just a two-game suspension instead.