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The college football world is on edge after a local judge granted Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby a temporary injunction to play for the Red Raiders this season, despite evidence that placed thousands of bets over the course of multiple years, including on his own team.
Sorsby will instead only miss Texas Tech’s opening two games of the season, against Abilene Christian and Oregon State, before returning to the field.
The backlash from across the country has been significant, including several programs stating that they will not schedule competitions against the Red Raiders in any sport.
But one Big 12 coach in particular pointed out the biggest problem of all with ruling.
Brendan Sorsby Ruling Sets A Terrible Precedent For College Sports
ESPN’s Dan Wetzel spoke to a number of coaches across the country to gauge their reaction to the news. All of the coaches were mystified by the ruling.
But the anonymous Big 12 coach pointed out, perhaps sarcastically, that it will change the way he coaches his players moving forward.
“If this is the precedent, then I owe it to my players to bring in people from Las Vegas to teach us how to gamble,” the coach stated. “Then collectively, we need to decide which games we will play hard in [to cover the spread] and which ones we won’t.
“I’m supposed to do what’s best for my players, and in that case, they would be able to make a lot of money betting on our games,” he added. “That’s the precedent for me.”
While it may sound ridiculous when you read it, the coach makes a good point. In a world where a coach’s job is to do right by players, why wouldn’t he encourage them to fix games, make a ton of money, then lawyer up down the line?
After all, it appears that Sorsby was able to do it, and the only consequence he’ll face is missing two games that don’t particularly matter in the grand scheme of things.
Without legitimate punishments for betting on games, you don’t have a legitimate sports league. And the Sorsby ruling, made by a friendly local judge, has turned college sports into a mockery.