Brendan Sorsby gambling addiction, explained: Why Texas Tech QB is taking leave of absence from football program
Brendan Sorsby’s Gambling Addiction Explained: Why Texas Tech QB is Taking Leave from Football Program originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as your preferred source by clicking here.
Texas Tech landed top quarterback transfer Brendan Sorsby in the portal, but Sorsby’s eligibility with the team is now in doubt.
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The quarterback is taking an indefinite leave of absence to deal with a gambling addiction stemming from sports betting in recent years. If Sorsby were to bet on sports while playing college football, it would violate NCAA rules and put him at risk of punishment from the organization.
Texas Tech spent a lot of its NIL money to add Sorsby for the season, so losing the quarterback would be a major blow to the team. In the meantime, the NCAA will give Sorsby the space to treat his addiction while continuing to investigate his actions.
Here’s the latest news on Brendan Sorsby’s leave of absence.
Brendan Sorsby leave of absence
On Monday, Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby announced he was taking a leave of absence to undergo treatment for gambling addiction.
Sorsby will enroll in a residential treatment program for gambling addiction, which aims to treat addicts. According to ESPN, there is no timetable for Sorsby’s return to the program because the NCAA is treating him as a mental health issue, but the NCAA is also investigating him for gambling while playing the past four years with Indiana or Cincinnati.
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Brendan Sorsby, gambling addiction
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that Sorsby is currently under investigation by the NCAA for making thousands of sports bets using a gambling app. That included betting on Indiana to win games when he redshirted for the Hoosiers as a freshman in 2022, although he never appeared in any of those games.
So far, law enforcement has not investigated Sorsby, so he is currently under the scrutiny of the NCAA, which prohibits all athletes from betting on college or professional sports. Therefore, the investigation calls into question Sorsby’s eligibility at Texas Tech for the 2026 season.
The NCAA betting guidelines for players depend on the amount of money players use in their bets. There is a range of sanctions, from education on the subject to a 50 percent suspension of a player’s season.
There is no timetable for the NCAA investigation, but Sorsby’s leave is a sign that these allegations are serious.
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NIL agreement with Brendan Sorsby
Sorsby signed a NIL deal with Texas Tech that will earn him between $4 million and $6 million, according to ESPN, but that deal is under review. Sorsby’s former team, Cincinnati, sued the quarterback in February, arguing that Sorsby breached his NIL agreement by failing to pay the school a $1 million exit fee to move to Texas Tech.
