Texas Tech will likely blame Nebraska and other schools that put immense pressure on the Red Raiders once Brendan Sorsby secured an injunction allowing him to play in 2026. However, the mess that was the last 10 days was a masterclass in how not to handle a crisis by the school located in Lubbock, Texas. Now, after the leadership claimed they simply wanted to ensure the quarterback, who bet on his own team at least once at his previous schools, had support, the two sides parted ways.
Nebraska will get some of the blame for Sorsby leaving Texas Tech. They were one of the first schools to announce they would not play the Red Raiders if the quarterback (who was suspended for the season by the NCAA before the injunction) played a down in 2026. Georgia followed suit shortly thereafter, and after Tech threatened further legal action, the outside pressure only ramped up.
But here’s the thing. The entire pressure from other schools could have been defused with a one-sentence release. “While supporting Brendan Sorsby in his recovery from gambling addiction, he will not play in the upcoming season.” That’s all it would have taken. Neither Nebraska nor anyone else would have felt compelled to announce they’re staying entirely away from the Big 12 program. The Big 12 certainly wouldn’t have threatened to take action.
Texas Tech could have looked like they were making lemonade out of lemons. They would have looked like the good guys. Instead, they did everything wrong, including releasing a 20-minute video in which leadership tried to explain why Sorsby was still on the team and why they wouldn’t definitively say he wouldn’t play.
The Red Raiders’ AD actually gave a long speech in that video about how the program stands behind players. Two days later, Brendan Sorsby is gone.
There will also be plenty of fans living in and around Texas who will no doubt claim that Nebraska and all the other schools that believed that Sorsby broke the one rule that cannot be broken with zero consequences - a player betting on his own team - simply didn’t understand that Tech wasn’t going to play him. But why not just say that?
As it stood, Brendan Sorsby, who admitted to placing a multitude of bets while in college, including some on his own team while at Indiana, could have played this fall after serving a two-game suspension. Many parties, including the Big 12, the NCAA, and Nebraska, came out staunchly against the injunction imposed by the court.
One would have hoped that people working in higher education could have seen the nuance involved in the Huskers’ stand. NU AD Troy Dannen didn’t issue the boycott order because the Red Raiders were allowing Sorsby to stay at the school. They went the boycott route because they thought Texas Tech was trying to pave over one of the more inexcusable acts that an athlete can do when it comes to the sanctity of the game.
Tech even explicitly tried to explain it away in that 20-minute video. The president of the university, of all people, said that with smartphones and gambling apps, it was simply too hard to regulate player gambling and that the rules needed to change. It’s safe to say his comments alone hurt his school’s standing with its peers.
All this is to say, if and when Texas Tech plays the victim yet again over and over in the coming weeks, no one should let them. Neither Nebraska nor anyone else painted them into the corner they chose to retreat to regarding Brendan Sorsby.
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