The Big 12 has filed a lawsuit against Texas Tech and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the wake of a Texas judge allowing Red Raiders quarterback Brendan Sorsby to play this season despite the charges of gambling lodged against him.
The 47-page complaint was filed on Monday in the Northern District of Texas and seeks a declaratory judgment to allow the Big 12 to enforce its rules against allowing Sorsby to play as he faces charges that he gambled on his own team while he was playing, On3 reported.
The lawsuit is not seeking financial damages, nor is it seeking to overturn the judge’s decision approving Sorsby’s eligibility to play this season. Instead, the lawsuit asks that a court allow the league to sanction Texas Tech for putting Sorsby in the lineup, without the league, in turn, being sanctioned by the Texas Attorney General’s office.
The lawsuit was filed in response to Paxton’s warning from last week that any Big 12 sanctions on Texas Tech could be seen as an antitrust violation. Paxton also warned that he could take legal action as a result.
The suit notes that several Big 12 officials had asked Texas Tech not to allow Sorsby to play, but the team refused.
The filing also says that “There is considerable concern” allowing Sorsby to play might cause “reputational harm and irreparable damage to public and member trust in the integrity of league competitions.”
“In an industry that rarely agrees on anything, there is finally an issue that everyone seems to agree on (other than TTU and the Attorney General): universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics,” the complaint added.
The lawsuit names Texas Tech, the Texas Tech University System, Chancellor Brandon Creighton, President Lawrence Schovanec, athletic director Kirby Hocutt and Texas AG Ken Paxton as defendants.
“The threat that gambling poses to the integrity of athletic competition has been understood, and has been borne out by scandal, for over a century,” the lawsuit says. “That history informs the Conference’s values and governance practices and explains why these values are non-negotiable.”
The player had already been ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA after he admitted to gambling on his own team. Sorsby also went into treatment for gambling addiction.
Early this month, Lubbock judge Ken Curry ruled that Sorsby will serve a two-game suspension to start the year, as was suggested by his legal team. However, he is eligible to return on September 18 for the start of Big 12 conference play against Houston.
But immediately after that, many Big 12 teams began debating whether to boycott games against Texas Tech, with most officials and coaches saying the integrity of college football is at risk by allowing the accused gambler to play without restrictions.
The situation is still fluid, and there are a lot of passionate feelings about the case.
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