Texas Tech has continued to stand behind its QB, Brendan Sorsby, despite facing opposition from across college football. On June 12, the program even released a video of a panel discussion featuring its AD, President, and football head coach Joey McGuire, among others. While they noted that their support is rooted in giving another chance to a young man who made mistakes, the noise isn’t dying down. Sports commentator Jason Whitlock joined the chorus to call out the program.
“Gambling on sports used to be forbidden and taboo, and everybody knew it was a bad thing,” Jason Whitlock said on his podcast on June 13. “Texas Tech, in its desire to win a national championship, is rewriting people’s mentality. They’re removing the taboo. The athletic director, the school president, and the head coach. They’re all in on it.”
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“They held some sort of panel discussion where they said some of the most ignorant things I’ve ever heard, trying to defend Brendan Sorsby,” Whitlock added.
Sorsby’s gambling case is one of the most serious college football cases that the sport has seen in recent years. He placed nearly $90,000 in bets across his time at Indiana and Cincinnati, including 40 wagers on Indiana games his freshman year.
Under NCAA rules, betting on one’s own school is among the biggest violations. The college sports regulator initially ruled that Sorsby was ineligible permanently and rejected Texas Tech’s appeal to restore him. However, Texas state judge Ken Curry granted Sorsby an injunction, allowing him to play during the 2026 season while his lawsuit against the NCAA moves forward.
Whitlock questioned whether the Red Raiders’ support would have been the same had Sorsby been a third-string QB or a depth piece. He arrived at Lubbock as a key piece of the 2026 roster to take Texas Tech to the next stage. Last year, they made it to the playoffs, but the offense struggled in their loss to Oregon. For that reason, Texas Tech was ready to spend around $5 million on getting Sorsby from Cincinnati.
The Lubbock program has defended its support by focusing on Sorsby’s rehabilitation. The panel that included the president, the AD, and Joey McGuire said they did not know about his gambling history before he transferred. They also stated that the school did not fund his lawsuit against the NCAA. Their position is that a student-athlete who received treatment for a gambling addiction deserves a chance to continue his career.
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“Brendan made a mistake. We acknowledge that mistakes have consequences,” Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec said yesterday while appearing with head coach Joey McGuire and AD Kirby Hocutt. “At the same time, here’s a young man with a dream and a vision to pursue a career. And we felt not to have the opportunity to pursue that career, given the circumstances and the evolving changes in this world that these athletes face, was unfair and unjust.”
Texas Tech is facing the heat from major college programs
Texas Tech is presenting Sorsby’s problem as a larger issue of gambling, which should be addressed with compassion and understanding. On several occasions, the program’s AD and President have pointed to the program’s work to tackle addiction and its medical center as being capable of addressing Sorsby’s issues. However, according to other schools, Sorsby’s case could create a troubling precedent.
“I think there needs to be serious conversations about not playing Texas Tech in any sports,” Georgia AD Josh Brooks told Yahoo Sports. “This is not about Texas Tech — it’s about protecting our own locker room. We cannot, in good conscience, put our student-athletes on a field where the competitive integrity of the contest is compromised and overridden by the courts.”
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It’s not just Georgia. Kansas State AD Gene Taylor said allowing Sorsby to play is “absolutely devastating” given that every other sport punishes athletes for betting on their team. Nebraska has gone a step further and banned Texas Tech from its future schedules. The Big 12, too, has held an emergency board meeting to determine whether its bylaws allow it to step in and rule Sorsby ineligible. However, doing so may not be as easy as it sounds.
Since Sorsby got his injunction from the court, the order remains binding, and going against it can easily put Texas Tech in a dominant legal position. For starters, the Texas attorney general has already warned the Big 12 against overriding the judge’s injunction, and Texas Tech has also made it clear it will pursue a lawsuit if the Big 12 makes any drastic decision.
The only way Sorsby doesn’t play next season is if the NCAA wins its appeal in the Seventh Court of Appeals of Texas. The governing body is seeking an “accelerated” hearing.
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The post “Ignorant”: Jason Whitlock Questions Joey McGuire & Texas Tech’s Support for Brendan Sorsby Despite Gambling Admission appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
