OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond called on the Big 12 Conference to suspend Brendan Sorsby after the Texas Tech quarterback won a court order that restored his eligibility and set aside a ban by the NCAA for gambling on pro and college sports.
“If Texas Tech will not do the right thing, the Big 12 should,” Drummond wrote Friday in a letter to the conference. “Texas Tech should be sanctioned. I also note that the injunction
granted to Sorsby applies only to the NCAA. It does not impede the Big 12 from suspending Sorsby.”
The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton warned the Big 12 on Thursday of potential legal action from Texas Tech as the conference considers its options. Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said the notice came shortly before the start of the league’s executive board meeting to discuss Sorsby's situation.
Drummond said claims that sanctions against Texas Tech would violate antitrust laws are meritless.
“By adopting and enforcing its bylaws, the Big 12 Conference is simply upholding integrity and fair play among membership," he said.
A Texas district court's temporary injunction that was issued Monday prevents the NCAA from enforcing its permanent ban of Sorsby, a decision that sent shock waves across college sports.
The transfer quarterback had been ruled ineligible after he acknowledged years of gambling that included more than $90,000 in wagers and at least 40 bets on his own team while he was a freshman at Indiana.
NCAA rules call for a permanent loss of eligibility for any player who wagered on his own team.
Drummond weighed in because Oklahoma State is a member of the Big 12. He suggested the conference could act under a bylaw that says a supermajority of the league’s athletic directors can sanction a member school if that school has “engaged in any action or a course of conduct materially adverse to the best interests of the conference as a whole.”
“Sadly, that fits Texas Tech to a ‘T’,” Drummond wrote. “Its actions in obtaining eligibility for Brendan Sorsby ... have constituted a shameful chapter in the story of college football. Texas Tech has acted in a manner adverse to the Big 12 and the integrity of college football as a whole."
Texas Tech says Sorsby has completed a month-long inpatient treatment program and will have to meet stipulations laid out in the court ruling if he is going to play this fall.
The school posted a 21-minute video Thursday night in which school president Lawrence Schovanec, athletic director Kirby Hocutt and coach Joey McGuire defended Texas Tech's approach with Sorsby. Hocutt said the school wasn't party to Sorsby's lawsuit against the NCAA and hasn't helped him with legal fees.
“There’s no reason whatsoever to question the integrity of our athletics department, or the competitive product that we put on the fields or on the courts each and every time that we go out,” Hocutt said. “Integrity of the game is sacred, and that’s why we’ve gone to such great lengths to ensure the monitoring and the compliance measures are in place for Brendan’s return.”
Big 12 athletic directors in a conference call Tuesday expressed strong opposition to Sorsby playing for the Red Raiders in what will be his final college season. Some of those athletic directors suggested not playing Texas Tech if he does.
The Big 12's board of directors, which is made up of presidents and chancellors from the league’s 16 schools, is set to meet Monday.
Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech in January for a reported multimillion-dollar deal after playing the past two seasons at Cincinnati, another Big 12 school. The 22-year-old Texas native first spent two seasons with the Hoosiers.
The Red Raiders, with one of college football’s most expensive rosters, won their first Big 12 title last season, set a school record with 12 wins and made the 12-team College Football Playoff.
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