Sorsby Agent’s Accusations About Cincinnati May Impact NIL Lawsuit

Brendan Sorsby’s NCAA eligibility has spanned state and federal courts, and though the former Texas Tech quarterback hopes to join the NFL, comments made by his agent, Ron Slavin, show how his college career will remain a source of litigation.

Slavin told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Wednesday that officials from the University of Cincinnati—where Sorsby played in 2024 and 2025—“knew” about Sorsby’s gambling addiction “and never said anything or didn’t do anything about it.”

The accusation might sound like sour grapes but is relevant to Cincinnati’s federal lawsuit against Sorsby for breach of contract, a case that is separate from Sorsby’s lawsuit against the NCAA and the Big 12’s lawsuit against Texas Tech.

The Bearcats contend that Sorsby breached an 18-month NIL deal when he transferred to Texas Tech earlier this year, a transfer that reportedly included a $5 million NIL deal for the quarterback. Cincinnati contends that Sorsby breached his Bearcats NIL deal and, in doing so, triggered a liquidated damages provision of $1 million.

In court documents, Sorsby argues his NIL deal with Cincinnati was NIL in name only and, in reality, was a pay-for-play arrangement with an unenforceable liquidated damages provision. He insists his NIL rights had “very little monetary value” since, Sorsby contends, his value to the school was playing quarterback. Sorsby has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, a motion that U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett will evaluate in the months ahead.

If Judge Barrett denies Sorsby’s motion to dismiss, the case will proceed into pretrial discovery. That means Sorsby and Cincinnati coaches, athletic officials and other school administrators would need to share emails and texts that go to the relationship between Sorsby and the school. Both sides would also provide sworn testimony, meaning under penalty of perjury, about the relationship.

Many, and possibly all, of those materials would become part of the public record. In other words, interesting nuggets of information would become accessible to journalists, fans and other interested persons, including NCAA and Big 12 officials.

Cincinnati’s potential awareness of Sorsby’s gambling problems would be relevant to the school’s decision to recruit the QB as a transfer from Indiana and sign him to a lucrative NIL deal. If the school knew that he bet, including on his own team in 2022, the admission could be problematic for Cincinnati with the NCAA, which could find the Bearcats were knowingly playing an athlete who was in violation of NCAA rules.

That type of disclosure could also be problematic for Cincinnati with its conference, the Big 12.

The league’s complaint against Texas Tech spends considerable energy preaching about the vices of college athletes betting on sports. The Big 12 insists that college athletes betting is destructive to the integrity of sports. The conference warns of a football player using insider information to make bets and even persuading his teammates “to one course of action over another” in an effort to fix games.

The Big 12 also stresses that a school that plays an ineligible athlete gains an unfair advantage. Along those lines, such a school could face the prospect of conference punishment, such as prohibitions on postseason play and restrictions on revenue distributions.

Whether Slavin’s accusation will prove true or is supported by any evidence remains to be seen. Obviously, he wasn’t under oath during a radio interview, and his client has an adversarial relationship with Cincinnati.

But it’s another twist in the legal saga of Sorsby, and it’s not one that will necessarily be extinguished should he join an NFL team. Both Sorsby, who now must convince the NFL to hold a supplemental draft for him, and Cincinnati might have reason to negotiate a settlement and an accompanying confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement.