Texas Tech is keeping a close watch on Brendan Sorsby. The 22-year-old quarterback is not allowed to spend his NIL money without the supervision of a university-appointed custodian and the university has control of his phone.
These unusual restrictions obviously correspond to his gambling addiction.
Sorsby was cleared by a local court to play college football in 2026, even after it was discovered that he placed placed at least 3,000 bets totaling ~$90,000 across college and professional sports throughout the first four years of his career. However, Texas Tech refuses to say whether or when he will suit up for the Red Raiders at this point in time.
Brendan Sorsby is getting paid a lot of NIL money at Texas Tech.
Texas Tech did not win a game during the 2026 College Football Playoff. The Red Raiders squandered their first round bye with a blowout loss in the quarterfinals. They never scored a single point. It was embarrassing.
In an effort to avoid that same result in back-to-back seasons, Texas Tech went all-in on the transfer portal. Red Raiders megabooster Cody Campbell and his group of oil tycoons opened their wallets to buy some of the best available players.
That includes Brendan Sorsby. The former Indiana and Cincinnati signal-caller committed to Texas Tech just a few days after he entered the portal. He is expected to take over for Behren Morton as the starting quarterback in Lubbock and will get paid a lot of money to do so. The Red Raiders are reportedly set to pay him between $4 and $6 million this season.
And then it all came crashing down at the end of April.
Sorsby checked into a rehabilitation program for a sports gambling addiction. The 22-year-old placed thousands of bets on various sporting events over four years, including at least 40 bets on his own team. That is against NCAA rules. He was subsequently banned from college football as a result of his violation.
The ban was deemed invalid on June 8th when a Texas judge granted Sorsby an injunction against the NCAA. The injunction prevents the organization from punishing Sorsby for his violation of the association’s anti-gambling rules.
Although Brendan Sorsby is legally allowed to play college football in 2026, he will be suspended for the first two games of the season against Abilene Christian and Oregon State. And the school will not commit to him as the starter while he continues to work back from his addiction.
“I think right now so many people are pointing the finger, ‘He’s going to play, he’s going to play, he’s going to play.’ He can play is what the judge said,” head coach Joey McGuire said. “What we’re trying to do is get him in a healthy space where feels great about what he’s doing and deal with this addiction and it’s day-by-day.”
We’ll see. I’ll be shocked if Sorsby does not start for Texas Tech in Week 3.
His bank account and cellphone are being tracked by the university.
Texas Tech is taking very specific measures to help Brendan Sorsby with his recovery from a gambling addiction as part of his compliance with the university. First and foremost, the quarterback will continue outpatient clinical care and individual and group therapy. He cannot miss any of his required sessions. He must remain in compliance to play.
Athletic director Kirby Hocutt also explained how the university plans to monitor Sorsby’s internet activity. The IT department was granted full access to his phone and computer. It placed a monitoring software on all of his devices. The software prevents him from accessing gambling websites and sportsbooks and tracks all of the activity on those devices.
“The morning the injunction was awarded, Brendan immediately came to the football stadium to meet with our IT department, our compliance department to put the monitoring technology on his devices that allows us to monitor the sites that he visits and block certain sites from him going to,” Hocutt said. “And he does not have the ability to uninstall those programs that are on his phone.”
Texas Tech also has control of his bank account. Kind of. The university assigned a custodian to his personal finances, which obviously includes the lucrative NIL agreement. He cannot access or spend his money without supervision.
Further details of this agreement have not been made public. Who is the custodian? How long do these protective measures last?