With online betting rampant and NIL money flowing, the Sorsby case highlights a growing crisis for college sports that has coaches deeply concerned
By John Talty Apr 30, 2026 at 3:54 pm ET • 4 min read 
Getty Images The Brendan Sorsby situation is both regrettable and unsurprising.
The Texas Tech quarterback, one of the nation's highest-paid players in college football, recently entered a facility to treat a gambling addiction. Based on NCAA precedent, he has likely thrown his last collegiate pass. The NCAA is currently investigating Sorsby's alleged gambling activity and is unlikely to rule him eligible after he reportedly bet on his own team, Indiana, as a freshman there in 2022. He allegedly placed thousands of sports bets in recent years, most for nominal amounts.
If Sorsby only gambled on professional sports, it likely would have come with a loss of 30% (three or four games) of his 2026 season. But gambling on college sports, specifically betting on your own team, can warrant a permanent loss of eligibility. Just this month, the NCAA ruled two former Fordham basketball players permanently ineligible for their role in an alleged point-shaving scheme.
Sorsby is the most high-profile collegiate player to fall victim to the trappings of online gambling, but he certainly won't be the last. It has impacted the professional levels, too, with multiple NBA players embroiled in gambling-related issues over the last few years. Former Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for a year after he gambled on NFL games. There was a time you had to go to Las Vegas in person to legally gamble on a team; now it's just a click on your phone. Online gambling has become ubiquitous, with gambling companies aggressively advertising to attract new customers. Of course, it would attract impressionable young athletes like Sorsby.
And it's a real challenge for college coaches beyond just Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire.
"You can't watch the TV station without an advertisement for gambling," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said Wednesday. "So the opportunity is there. It's much more prevalent in this day and age. They also have access to more money to gamble with. There's a lot of kids that, in my day, would never gamble. They didn't have money to gamble with.
"You've got to educate your players and you got to hope that they listen and learn. Sometimes it's an expensive lesson to learn not to do it."
Brendan Sorsby's gambling probe clouds his NFL future -- even the supplemental draft looks unlikely John Breech
Smart makes a smart point (pun intended) on the dangerous combination of easy access to gamble and influx of money to do so. In the NIL and revenue share world, football and basketball players have access to way more money than they did 25 years ago. That money has been life-changing for so many of them, but it also comes with risks and temptations.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, Smart's former boss in Tuscaloosa, had long been worried about gambling's potential impact on his team. Before retiring in 2024, he viewed it as a unique, pressing challenge.
"That was always my number one concern because, to me, any time you had something that became legal that was against NCAA rules, it made it a very difficult management and something that was difficult to control," Saban said. "So we have something that's not against the law, but it's against the rules, and that made it tough to manage internally."
There was recently a push to allow college athletes, who are of legal age to gamble, to bet on professional sports. An initial proposal to allow staff and players to gamble on pro sports passed, only to be recalled and overturned after significant backlash. As the rules stand, college athletes are completely prohibited from gambling on sports.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, interestingly enough, is the former coach of two of the three schools (Cincinnati, Texas Tech) involved in the Sorsby situation. Before becoming a politician, Tuberville said he always told his team three things: 1) Don't talk to agents, 2) Don't sign with agents and 3) Stay away from gamblers asking about injuries. Players are allowed to have agents now, but the gambling issues are even more paramount.
"You got this kid that's come from Cincinnati, went to Texas Tech, got a problem and a lot of it's created by online things," Tuberville said. "It's just unfortunate that this has happened. It's gonna be a lesson to learn hopefully for a lot of players."
If Sorsby is ruled ineligible, he could try to head to the NFL through the supplemental draft. However, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones believes that path is unlikely to be successful. "If he wanted to apply to the NFL for the supplemental draft, folks I talked to believe he would not be approved," Jones said. "So the supplemental draft seems like an extremely unlikely pathway this summer. And here's why: The NFL is obviously very hard on those who gamble on NFL games ... If you are in the NFL and you do bet on your team -- win or lose -- you are banned a minimum of two years. That's how seriously the league takes this."
Sorsby was considered a potential first-round draft pick in next year's draft before the gambling investigation became public.
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