Where can Brendan Sorsby play college football after NFL supplemental draft ruling?
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After being declared ineligible by the NCAA for gambling on his own team while at Indiana and continuing to place bets in violation of NCAA bylaws while at Cincinnati, Brendan Sorsby had hoped that officially renouncing his eligibility and applying to the supplemental draft would allow him to find an offseason shortcut into the NFL instead of waiting until the 2027 draft.
But the NFL announced this week that there will be no offseason supplemental draft, citing in a letter to Sorsby the “sole discretion to determine whether it is appropriate” to hold a draft and the fact that his petition “does not provide a basis” to do so.
“Instead, even after receiving notice of the NCAA’s decision rescinding your college eligibility in May, you sought to avoid the consequences of that determination through litigation rather than accepting responsibility for your actions, and you pursued entry into the NFL only after abandoning those efforts,” said the letter from Larry Ferazani, the general counsel of the NFL Management Council.
Now barring another legal challenge, Sorsby’s only path into the NFL is via the traditional draft process nearly a year away. Whether an NFL franchise would spend capital on Sorsby is unknown, though draft experts projected the would-be senior as a potential first-round pick had he entered his name into this past year’s draft.
But the decision by the NFL brings Sorsby back to square one: Where, if anywhere, could he play football in 2026?
“We’ve seen the NCAA rules tumble, get pushed, get shifted around, and people kind of roll their eyes and go along with court orders that have taken place. But with this one, it really was different,” said Ron Rychalk, a lawyer and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Mississippi.
“I think that the blowback from within the athletic community was perhaps more significant than the threatened legal actions that preceded his withdrawal of his complaint, of his claimed ability to go ahead and play.”
Could Brendan Sorsby play in the UFL or CFL?
There are other professional options. One would have been the UFL, which has carved out a niche as a springtime league and second-chance launching pad for players angling for an NFL roster, but the league’s 2026 season ended earlier this month. The start of the 2027 season isn’t until March.
Another is the CFL, which began play in June and will play through November. The league’s free agency period ended in early February and the CFL draft was held in late April.
The CFL did not respond to a USA TODAY Sports request for information on Sorsby’s potential eligibility for the 2026 season. But there are several factors that make this a less-than-likely option:
For starters, there’s the fact that Sorsby does not currently appear on any team’s negotiating list, a frequently updated grouping of players who may only suit up for that team if they wish to play or even tryout for a spot in the CFL. Each team is also subject to a cap on the number of American players.
More importantly, the fact that the current season is already underway restricts Sorby’s chances of signing with a team, learning the system and then climbing the depth chart into a meaningful role.
More realistically, Sorsby’s only path to playing football in 2026 is to remain in college — only on a level far removed from the Power Four.
Why junior college could be Sorsby’s only option
Despite formally dropping his lawsuit, he may continue to wage a legal battle with the NCAA over his ability to still play for Texas Tech after sitting out the season’s first two games as part of a school-mandated suspension.
Doing so may open an even wider fight involving the Big 12, which filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment granting the league the authority to cite its bylaws in punishing Sorsby and Texas Tech. Other league members were united with the league office in criticizing the school’s decision to pursue eligibility for Sorsby.
A simmering battle between the attorneys general from Texas and Oklahoma died down with Sorsby’s decision to renounce his eligibility but could be reignited by any efforts by Sorsby, his lawyers or Texas Tech to reclaim his final season.
“It feels to me like we’ve crossed that river and probably can’t go back,” Rychalk said. “There were, of course, the threatened litigation and counter litigation, but also the enormous pushback that seemed to come from conferences and athletics directors at other universities. I think that it would be a very hard lift to try to go back and re-enter a battle that he seemed to be having a very hard time with even before.”
That he is currently deemed ineligible by the NCAA prevents Sorsby from transferring to a Championship Subdivision program or into a program on the Division II or Division III levels.
There are two other collegiate levels outside of the NCAA: the NAIA and the National Junior College Athletic Association.
Sorsby is not eligible for the NAIA, according to league bylaws. Per the NAIA, a student cannot be granted eligibility if they have been “permanently banned from the sport by any four-year school” on the NCAA or NAIA level or if they have been “permanently banned by any athletic association.”
That leaves junior college as Sorsby’s only option. The NJCAA has no concrete standard for eligibility, stating in league bylaws that that determination occurs “at the institutional level and all previous college work is taken into consideration when determining athletic eligibility.”
Dropping down to the JUCO level was the path taken by former Iowa State quarterback Hunter Dekkers, who set for his second season as the Cyclones’ starter in 2023 before being ruled ineligible by the NCAA for wagering on his team’s games.
Dekkers sat out the 2023 season after his appeal for reinstatement was denied. He resurfaced in 2024 at Iowa Western Community College, led the Reivers to the NJCAA championship game and then entered the NFL draft.
While he went undrafted, Dekkers spent the 2025 season on the New Orleans Saints’ practice squad, played this past spring for the UFL’s Houston Gamblers and then resigned with the Saints this month.
One difference between these two cases can be found in each player’s draft stock. Dekkers was a fringe prospect; Sorsby was and may still be a borderline elite talent whom franchises could view as a possible long-term starter.
But even an NFL future a year from now remains uncertain: “We encourage you to focus on preparing for possible entry into the NFL through the 2027 NFL Annual Draft,” the league told Sorsby.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brendan Sorsby’s football future after NFL supplement draft snub
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