Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby, Diagnosed With Gambling Disorder, Appeals NCAA Ban After Bets on Indiana

Brendan Sorsby placed at least 40 bets on Indiana football while serving as a quarterback for the Hoosiers and used accounts registered to family members and friends to wager approximately $90,000 over four years, according to court documents filed Friday in district court in Lubbock, Texas.

The filings show Sorsby continued to gamble after transferring from Cincinnati to Texas Tech in December. He transferred at least $60,000 to two friends to cover bets made on his behalf.

While enrolled at Indiana from June 2022 to December 2023, Sorsby acknowledged making at least 2,900 bets totaling more than $30,000. On an unspecified date in 2022, Sorsby made at least 40 wagers on Indiana football or individual team members. Those bets ranged from $1 to $114 and totaled at least $850.

Sorsby redshirted during the 2022 season and did not compete in games during the period in which he placed the wagers. The wagers on Indiana stopped two weeks before his debut against Penn State on November 4, 2023. Sorsby has been diagnosed with a gambling and anxiety disorder and recently completed a 35-day stint in an Arizona gambling rehabilitation center, his attorneys stated.

He agreed to continue treatment and monitoring after returning to Texas Tech, complete gambling education classes, and work with the NCAA to educate other student-athletes about the risks of gambling. "It became a habit for me to bet," Sorsby wrote in a statement to the NCAA.

"My betting became a compulsion which made it virtually impossible to resist the constant notifications I received from betting apps.

I lost complete control of my addiction. " In a May 16 statement to NCAA reinstatement staff, Sorsby wrote that the bets "made me feel like I was supporting the team when I was not playing in games, much like fans betting on their hometown teams to win. It was a way to make me feel more connected to my team when I wasn't playing.

The NCAA denied Sorsby's request to be reinstated, ESPN reported Tuesday. Texas Tech appealed the decision Friday. Sorsby's attorneys are asking the NCAA to treat his gambling addiction like any other mental health condition and mitigate his penalty.

He currently faces permanent ineligibility. "Brendan asks only for the NCAA to abide by its commitment to evaluate his reinstatement appeal based on his actual conduct and the mental health condition that spurred it," Sorsby attorney Scott Tompsett wrote in a letter to the NCAA.

Sorsby used Hard Rock Bet, FanDuel, Underdog and PrizePicks accounts registered in his name, a family member's name and friends' names to place the wagers during his time at Indiana and Cincinnati.

The four-page stipulated facts document, submitted by Sorsby and Texas Tech to the NCAA, was not contested by the governing body's enforcement staff. Sorsby never bet on the Indiana team or its members in a game in which he participated. A hearing on Sorsby's request for a temporary injunction to maintain his college eligibility is scheduled for Monday in Lubbock.