Brendan Sorsby drama ends, but not before tearing college football apart
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Well isn’t this just the perfect ending to a rotten, selfish game of no one wins.
Brendan Sorsby has seen enough, everyone, and is headed to the NFL supplemental draft. One person close to the process told USA TODAY Sports Sorsby was “done fighting.”
A fight that never should’ve been fought in the first place ― and one that nearly tore apart college football at the seams in the process.
This has always been about Sorsby and his gambling addiction, not college football and its rules. Not Texas Tech, not activist judges, not attorneys general lining up to get their 15 minutes of Sorsby summer political fame.
While spending your tax dollars, of course.
Give Sorsby credit for reading the room. He saw the road ahead, and knew the biggest loser in this story would eventually be him.
Now there’s a chance to become the great American comeback story we all know and love.
Instead of the great fleecing of America in the now all-too familiar world of me over thee.
Sorsby isn’t a “kid” as he has been portrayed by many. He’s a grown man who made poor decisions over and over, and has a debilitating addiction.
His eligibility should’ve never been protected by the self-serving adults in his orbit at Texas Tech — whom we last saw sitting around a table declaring unending support for Sorsby in a 20-minute hostage video — who wanted to win a damn football game. He needs help.
But there were Texas Tech’s president, athletic director, football coach and some other man of academia — at this point, the names are superfluous — assuring Sorsby that even though he broke the unforgivable sin in the NCAA rulebook, he can still get out of this jam by playing football.
We reached peak puke when Kirby Hocutt, Texas Tech’s athletic director, said Sorsby “looked me in the eye” and reassured him he had not “jeopardized the integrity or outcome of any game he competed in.”
It’s not enough for Texas Tech to offer a hand up with addiction support, the brilliant leaders in that video decided on a gift eligibility handout — based on a five-star quarterback rating.
Zero accountability, zero responsibility.
I’ve said this over and over, and will say it a million more times: We all make decisions in life, we all deal with the consequences of those decisions.
Until someone says there are no consequences because we need to win a football game. Or I need to win an election.
Which brings us all the way back to the final front of this utterly ridiculous game of who blinks and does the right thing? The one thing that may have finally forced Sorsby into leaving for the NFL.
Not surprisingly, each side brought reinforcements from — tada! — the legal community. Apparently, the schools and conferences have learned a thing or two from players.
Only this time there was a unique twist to the judge shopping craze of the 2026 offseason: attorney general vs. attorney general. For all the generals! I mean, marbles.
I ask you, what’s more Americana than one attorney general arguing you can’t tell Texas Tech what to do, while the others are arguing you can’t tell the Big 12 what to do?
Instead of everyone looking at the center of the argument: the guy who all along did what he wasn’t supposed to do.
This was never about an activist judge in Texas initially overriding NCAA rules that everyone agreed to, and deciding the NCAA can’t keep Sorsby from playing. Or about clout-chasing attorneys general and their court filings, or sycophant fans hanging on to the hope of what could be if Texas Tech finally gets a true blue quarterback.
This has always been about Sorsby, and the fact he broke the No. 1 rule in the NCAA handbook, and refused to accept responsibility for his actions. Until he finally saw the road ahead.
American loves a comeback story, Brendan.
Not the only winner in a rotten, selfish game.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brendan Sorsby leaves Texas Tech — after college football lost its mind
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