There’s nothing about this Brendan Sorsby case I like. I don’t think he should be allowed to play college football in 2026. There’s just no excusing a guy who admits he bet on his team being allowed to play, while using the mental health angle as part of his reason for breaking the rules and still playing college football. That being said, if Big 12 athletic directors are going to try and cancel games with Texas Tech moving forward, which was reported throughout the day on Monday, they are doing exactly what the SEC wants the rest of the league to do.
Texas Tech has become one of the most controversial programs in college sports, not because they have done anything illegal, but because they have used the loose rules as they currently exist to build nationally relevant programs in football, basketball, and softball, among others. The SEC doesn’t like the idea of this overlooked program in flyover country, West Texas, crashing their parade atop college athletics.
Right now, Texas Tech is the Big 12‘s best bet for consistent, national relevance. You don’t have to like it, but it’s a fact. They’re investing in the roster, and until guardrails are put in place, that’s what it takes to win at a high level and try to win a CFP. Why would the Big 12 ostracize this program that is its best opportunity to make noise vs. the Big Ten and SEC?
Once again, I’m not defending Sorsby or how Tech has handled it. But the broader issue remains with the state of college sports. Tech didn’t create the problems. Are they exploiting them? Sure. But any other program in America can do exactly the same thing right now, given the Wild West landscape.
So you will see national media outraged over the Sorsby decision. But to be clear, many of these writers and media personalities are being pressured by their SEC and Big Ten sources to toe the line of “Texas Tech is destroying the integrity of college sports”. That’s just not true. That ship sailed a long time ago, and in many respects it began in the SEC with the bag men rolling through the back door, not the front door, right Coach O?
I just have no appetite for the sanctimonious BS coming out of the SEC right now. And I would urge all Big 12 fans not to fall for the propaganda that will come hard and fast in the days and weeks to come.
