NCAA president Charlie Baker had a strong reaction to a Texas judge’s ruling that granted Brendan Sorsby a preliminary injunction and would allow him to play this season for Texas Tech, despite being labeled permanently ineligible for betting on his own team’s college football teams.
Baker called it a “new low” and said that the college sports’ governing body had already filed an appeal.
“I spent eight years as governor of Massachusetts, and three years and change in this job. This was pretty much a new low, and I’ll leave it at that,” Baker said while taking part in a Q&A in Las Vegas on Tuesday, The Athletic reported. “We’re appealing already, and we’ll pursue every legal avenue that’s available to us. I mean, this is a pretty fundamental issue, and I think the facts can speak for themselves.”
AT&T Stadium on April 17, 2026 in Lubbock, Texas. Getty Images for ONIT
Sorsby left the Texas Tech program in April to go into a residential treatment program for an addiction to gambling that had started back while he was a freshman at Indiana in 2022.
The NCAA has faced a number of lawsuits over its rules in recent years, but Baker felt that this particular instance spoke for itself.
“The rules on this one [Sorsby case] are pretty clear, and they apply to everybody who plays sports at the amateur and professional level everywhere; but if you think about it, you know three or four of the most challenging issues that Division I faces are all the result of a court case,” Baker said. “And in most cases, it’s one student-athlete, the judge sees that one student-athlete and makes a decision based on that, but the consequences of it ripple all over the place.”
Sorsby admitted in an injunction filed in May as part of his lawsuit against the NCAA that he had placed bets on the first eight games of Indiana’s 2022 season when he was part of its scout team.
Sorsby is said to have placed more than 9,000 bets for over $90,000, with at least 40 wagers placed on Hoosier football during that 2022 season, according to USA Today.
Monday’s ruling has led to both Nebraska and Georgia not scheduling any future games against Texas Tech.
Big 12 athletic directors are having conversations about whether playing the Red Raiders is worth it.
