Brendan Sorsby will have to wait until 2027 to begin his NFL career.
The NFL informed the 22-year-old quarterback on Tuesday that it will not hold a supplemental draft this year, and encouraged him to focus on preparing for possible entry into the league through the regular draft next year.
The league told Sorsby of its decision in a letter that was obtained by The Associated Press.
Sorsby had applied for the supplemental draft after a legal battle with
the NCAA, which had declared him ineligible for making thousands of bets on sporting events worth at least $90,000 during his college career. Those included at least 40 bets on Indiana while he was a freshman there in 2022, though none on the games in which he played for the Hoosiers that season.
The NFL hasn't held a supplemental draft since 2023 and had no plans to do so this year before Sorsby's petition. No player has been selected in the supplemental draft since 2019.
“Your Petition — filed three business days before the deadline, without any supporting information or documentation, and only after abandoning your recent litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions — does not provide a basis for the League to alter those plans," NFL attorney Lawrence P. Ferazani Jr. said in his letter to Sorsby and the 32 NFL teams. "The issues presented by your Petition are too significant, and too closely tied to the League’s core integrity interests, to permit meaningful review within the timeline presented.”
Eligibility for either the regular draft or supplemental draft is required for entry into the NFL, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and its union. A player who is not selected in the draft could then enter the league as a free agent.
“No player shall be eligible to be employed by an NFL Club until he has been eligible for selection in an NFL Draft,” the CBA states in Article 6.
Sorsby is considered a potential Day 2 pick — second or third round — in next year's draft. Teams will have to be convinced he's overcome his gambling problems.
The NFL's letter pointed out that Sorsby's petition didn't address reports that he may have violated state criminal law nor did it “demonstrate accountability for your conduct or indicate whether, or how, you would adhere to the League’s rules and policies governing the integrity of competition."
It concluded: “We encourage you to focus on preparing for possible entry into the NFL through the 2027 NFL Annual Draft.”
The submission deadline for the rarely used supplemental draft was Monday. Sorsby had planned to work out for NFL teams on July 10.
Sorsby, after transferring earlier this year from Cincinnati to Texas Tech, was banished from competition by the NCAA for the gambling activity.
After spending a month in a residential treatment program for a diagnosed addiction that led to thousands of bets, Sorsby sued the NCAA and gained a court-ordered reinstatement that prompted nationwide backlash toward Texas Tech. The controversy led Sorsby to enter this special draft session.
“The sole reasons identified in your Petition for seeking entry into the Supplemental Draft are that you have been ‘declared ineligible’ by the NCAA, have ‘exhausted all of (your) avenues to continue in the NCAA,’ and ‘want to now play in the NFL,’” Ferazani wrote. “The Petition provides no information regarding the basis for, or timing of, the NCAA’s decision. Public sources, however, indicate that in May 2026 the NCAA issued a determination declaring you permanently ineligible from participation in college athletics, based on a sustained pattern of improper gambling activity during your collegiate career at three different universities.”
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