The Texas attorney general’s office warned the Big 12 on Thursday of potential legal action from Texas Tech as the conference considers what to do after Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby won a court order restoring his eligibility and setting aside his ban by the NCAA for gambling on pro and college sports.
Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said the notice came shortly before the start of the league’s executive board meeting to discuss its options in the Sorsby situation.
The temporary injunction issued Monday by a Texas district court 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 at least 40 bets on his own team while he was a freshman at Indiana. Texas Tech said he has completed a month-long inpatient treatment program and will continue to receive treatment and support while being monitored.
The letter from the Texas attorney general’s office was addressed to Yormark and Douglas Girod, the chancellor of the University of Kansas as well as the chairman of the Big 12 board of directors. It specifically references a conference bylaw that, with a supermajority vote, could result in sanctioning a school that has “engaged in any action or a course of conduct materially adverse to the best interests of the conference taken as a whole.”
The attorney general’s office said any sanctions against Texas Tech for “acting consistent” with the district court injunction “would be a per se violation of federal and state antitrust laws — a naked horizontal agreement among competitors to disadvantage Texas Tech by cutting off access to the resources it needs to compete.”