Brendan Sorsby scandal best thing for college football, ESPN analyst says

The gambling scandal surrounding former University of Cincinnati Bearcats quarterback Brendan Sorsby has, in the eyes of some fans, put a dark cloud over college football.

But one ESPN analyst thinks it could be the best thing to happen to the sport.

Jordan Rodgers, the former Vanderbilt quarterback who spent time in the NFL and is the brother of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, said as much on "Get Up" on Wednesday.

"It's a dark day. It was embarrassing for the sport, but it will be the best thing that has ever happened for college football," Rodgers said after Lubbock County District Court Judge Ken Curry blocked the NCAA's ruling declaring Sorsby ineligible at Texas Tech this upcoming season.

"This is going to be the line of demarcation for what was college football for the last five or six years, which is kind of like the wild west. With NIL. With tampering. With the transfer portal. With eligilbility, guys suing to get extra years. This era's going to be marked by an asterisk."

Rodgers said the fallout from the Sorsby situation will be the point college football moves forward, although it won't happen immediately.

"Structure and change will happen because it happened … with probably the most talented player in the transfer portal at a school that can compete for a College Football Playoff spot and a national championship next year," he said. "If this had happened at Kent State or UMass, all due respect, no one would really care. It would be a storyline for a day and then we'd look past it."

The quarterback stepped away from the Texas Tech program on April 27 to enter a residential treatment program for his gambling addiction that he says dated back to his freshman season at Indiana University in 2022.

Sorsby – UC’s starting quarterback for the 2024 and 2025 seasons – has admitted to placing thousands of bets while at all three universities he has attended, including Texas Tech where he transferred this year.

The NCAA prohibits student-athletes from betting on any sports that it sponsors, college or professional, and has said betting on one's own team has always resulted in permanent ineligibility.

The Enquirer's Scott Springer and Kevin Grasha contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Brendan Sorsby scandal is good for college football, ESPN analyst says