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This Week in Gambling
The Brendan Sorsby drama is the gift that keeps on giving, especially among those of us who feel that sports gambling in its current incarnation is a scourge on the athletic world. For those of you who haven't been following, Sorsby is a college football quarterback who began his career with the Indiana Hoosiers before transferring to Cincinnati and becoming their primary starter. Following good seasons in 2024 and 2025, he transferred again in January, this time to Texas Tech. Cincinnati then sued him over an alleged $1 million buyout clause in his NIL deal, which he refused to pay. This would have been nothing more than a minor sideshow except on March 11, the NCAA received a tip from law enforcement about suspected gambling activity, and the following month, Texas Tech was notified that an investigation was taking place. As the NFL Draft took place the last weekend in April, Sorsby was checking into a residential treatment facility for gambling addiction, and the gambling allegations were made public. Over a four year period beginning when he was a redshirt freshman at Indiana in 2022, Sorsby had made over $90,000 in bets, including bets involving his own team, and had others place bets for him when he was prevented from doing so because of either age or being in a state where gambling was prohibited. In the latter case, he had others place over $5,000 worth of bets for him outside the state of Texas, where sports betting is illegal. Keep in mind he had only been in Texas since January.
The timing of the investigation frustrated Sorsby's desire to play in 2026, as challenging an unfavorable determination would require an antitrust suit that wouldn't be resolved by the start of the season. On May 18, he preemptively sued the NCAA, seeking an injunction and a declaratory judgment that they had no power to suspend him. That same day, the NCAA ruled him ineligible for the upcoming season. Texas Tech was initially supportive of Sorsby and made excuses for him: That sports betting is a growing problem among young men, that he completed his treatment program (which evidently didn't last very long), that there should be discipline, but that he shouldn't have his life destroyed over the matter. Sorsby himself made excuses, saying that betting on Indiana as a redshirt made him feel more connected to his team and having a real stake in the games, as if being on the team wasn't enough. Texas Tech ruled him ineligible, but said they would work on reinstating him before the season started.
On June 8, the district court issued an injunction preventing the NCAA sanctions from taking effect, and the reaction from the college football world was severe. The school's conference, the Big 12, made noises about possibly putting their own sanctions on Texas Tech if they allowed Sorsby to play. Scheduled opponents suggested they would simply forfeit their games in the absence of any other action. Ken Paxton warned the Big 12 that the state of Texas viewed any meddling by the conference as an antitrust violation and that they could expect to be sued if they took any action. AGs from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Utah responded that they would back the Big 12 in any lawsuit. The Big 12 then sued Texas Tech preemptively, seeking a declaratory judgment that they had the right to impose their own sanctions. Realizing his quest to play was futile, Sorsby withdrew his lawsuit on June 15 and announced that he intended to participate in the NFL Supplemental Draft.
The Supplemental Draft stems from an odd corner of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and provides an alternative to the regular draft for players who intended to play college football and accordingly missed the filing deadline. Historically, these reasons included things like being declared academically ineligible and graduating early, and occasionally involved NCAA sanctions stemming from activity that's banned in college but is okay everywhere else, like hiring an agent or accepting money from a booster. It's not held every year, and some years when it is held don't result in any players being taken. When it is held, there are usually only one or two players involved, and it's been nearly a decade since anyone of note was selected in one. It operates through a byzantine process where teams are divided into tranches based on the prior year's record and teams within each tranche bid draft picks for the player, and if he isn't selected the next tranche has a shot. So say the first tranche includes Miami at 4 and Washington at 6. If Miami bids a 6th round pick and Washington a 5th rounder, Washington gets the player for bidding higher and forfeits their 5th round pick in the following year's entry draft in exchange. If both teams bid 6th round picks then Miami get the player in exchange for a 6th rounder, etc. If nobody in the first tranche bids then the second tranche has a shot, then the third, then it's over.
The topic of the supplemental draft actually came up as early as April, as Sorsby's agent indicated that it was an option if he didn't get to play for Texas Tech, and that he had inquired about the process with the NFL. With the application deadline of June 22 looming and the college situation looking increasingly dim, the NFL route looked like the best shot. Within hours of announcing Sorsby's intent to pursue a pro career, his agent was telling media that he had already received calls from 26 teams. He scheduled a pro day for July 10, days before the CBA-mandated supplemental draft deadline of July 16. He claimed that all 32 teams would be in attendance. Yesterday, this whole facade came crashing down. In a sternly-worded letter, from the league's General Counsel, the NFL informed Sorsby that they would not be holding a supplemental draft this year. It is so good it's worth quoting in its entirety, as no summary could do it justice:
The reaction from Sorsby's attorney was that the decision violates the CBA and that he was taking the matter up with the NFLPA, but it isn't clear that the union intends to do anything. As he's not on a team, Sorsby isn't entitled to any representation, and even if he were, the CBA leaves the decision to have a supplemental dragt entirely at the discretion of the league (something tells me that this isn't often a point of contention).
While it is, in a sense, satisfying to see an entitled prick like Sorsby get his comeuppance, in another sense this only kicks the can down the road. Remember, the judge originally granted a preliminary injunction, meaning that his lawsuit had a good chance of succeeding, or at least the judge thought it did. College athletics has become such a mess that at this point I believe that the house must be burned down to kill the cockroaches, and a court ruling that the NCAA had no power to declare a player ineligible for one of the two cardinal sins of athletics (the other being PED use) is tantamount to saying that they have no power at all. The Big 12 suit would have resolved questions of whether conferences had the power to enforce their own restrictions. Texas Tech winning every game by forfeit would have created an unusual situation where the team technically has a good record despite not playing, or only playing only jobbers. What if the Big 12 had lost their lawsuit, and the only meaningful game Tech played all year was in the conference championship, where they got steamrolled by, I don't know, BYU? The worst thing that could have happened to college football right now was a pyrrhic victory that convinced the casual fan that the sport wasn't a total farce, and this was it. Even Indiana's championship this year wasn't as feel-good as it seems, because that only happened because a large booster base allowed Cignetti to basically throw money at players. I don't want to pretend that the old system was equitable, even going back to the 1960s or earlier when things were supposedly pure, but in recent years things have only gotten worse. I'm not under any impression that college football will ever operate the way I'd like it to—even proposed congressional intervention only seems aimed at reinstating the shitty pre-NIL status quo—but the only chance of getting there is if the sport manages to destroy itself in spectacular fashion.
There is no more wretched hive of scum and villainy masquerading as a pillar of respectable society than college football. The players are at best academic frauds -- enrolled in fake classes and pretending to earn a fake degree -- and at worst are public nuisances empowered by administrators and politicians. The coaches are all snakes, recruiting young men with promises of loyalty, comradery, and respect, then skipping town on a private jet the moment a bigger school calls. Not even manslaughter will prevent an overperforming coach from falling up.
And then there are the conferences. Not content with sharing the financial benefits of America's culture of amateur college sports, the big schools collude amongst themselves to hoard all of the viewership and revenue. The resulting turf squabbles are more dramatic than the on-field product, reminding one of European diplomacy during the Long 19th Century.
I still watch it of course.
I had a family member who played at a big name college football program in the 90s. His GPA, he once told me, was a 0.5. ZERO POINT FIVE.
IMO I would probably hirer a football player with a .5 gpa who clearly outperformed his athletic ability than the average college grad. Football is harder mentally and discipline wise than most college majors. And college majors rarely matter for what you do in business.
Most positions! For the love of god no wide receivers though.
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