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3.2.1...
A couple of thoughts:
1. This is an injunction. It's not ruling on whether the penalty/ban is appropriate, but whether he should be held out of college football while his court case is proceeding. Injunction rulings are based on a number of factors, including: showing a likelihood to win on the merits (doesn't have be more likely than not, but has be better than very unlikely); whether there would be "imminent and irreparable injury" if the penalty/ban was enforced WHILE the legal proceeding is ongoing; balancing of interests; and public interest. Not all factors are equal and the judge can lean on one or another.
2. The injury here is loss of NIL and playing experience. The injury is in fact imminent (happens this fall) and is irreparable (he will be out of eligibility if held out). Essentially, the outcome of the lawsuit would have no bearing on the player because it would be decided too late. The judge leaned on this factor heavily to make his decision.
3. I'm a little surprised the other factors were not as heavily considered, as they weigh against Sorsby. I don't know whether the mental health argument is a winning argument, but I guess this judge found it compelling enough that he decided it was compelling enough that the Sorsby could win the case on this outcome. The other two factors weigh heavily against Sorsby as there are balancing interests to keep gambling out of sports and public interest to keep-insider gambling out of sports.
4. The appeal will be interesting. And I think many powerful entities will support the NCAA here, including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, etc. I also think the sporting books would have interest to support the NCAA here, but would they do so publicly? They definitely want to keep their partnerships with professional sports and public confidence strong (i.e., confident that the bets are fair and not affected by insiders), so we'll see.
5. I don't gamble because I don't enjoy it. But I say let the schadenfreude go wild. Kalshi should set prop bets on the appeal outcome and whether Sorsby will be eligible? Let Sorsby gamble on these prop bets. And let's also have the appellate judge place a bet. Why not?
The sheer volume of sports betting ads during NCAA events are insaneeeee. It was funny to see a couple ham fisted "don't attack the athletes when your bets lose" infomercials crammed in between the draftkings ads.
it all needs to be torn down and rebuilt. The games are no longer the main attraction. The sideshow that is the news has now taken center stage.
The Feds just need to put him in jail during the season.
Hot take apparently: this is 100% the correct decision.
NCAA, ESPN, etc are all deeply intertwined with the online gambling companies. The same organizations have done nothing (no lobbying, no contractual requirements, nothing) to suggest that these organizations should be limited. Because the NCAA wants to avoid the employment decision at all costs, they have done no collective bargaining or employment adjacent activities with their athletes, so they too are without recourse.
IMHO, this is very much a reap-what-you-sow moment.
I would applaud Texas Tech if they suspended or just benched him, but they aren't going to do that. Winning is too valuable.
Yup. That's my issue. Football is more important than rules or morals... At least in Texas... and probably everywhere the makes up Big10 and SEC country.
Oh I mean insider trading is legal within Polymarket and Kalshi, so this kind of thing was always inevitable
Einhorn is Finkle
man wth is that about? Who in their right mind would start a game at that hour??? Postpone the game and start it back up in the morning like any sane league would.
I would applaud Texas Tech if they suspended or just benched him, but they aren't going to do that. Winning is too valuable.
Also crazy that this is who this ruling is happening for. it'd be less shocking if Texas managed to finagle things legally to get Arch Manning back on the field. But this is a transfer qb with 1 year of eligibility left playing for Big 12 school Texas fucking Tech. People are dragging college football through the mud for this dude and this program. I get they have lots of oil money but damn
It used to be that those with the resources had the decency to try and hide that they could buy their way to whatever ruling they wanted and maybe toss an offender to the wolves if they were too egregious
We are reaching a point where it is just out in the open now.
yeah - attacking this differently with a simple memo from the B12 and/or NCAA front office stating that they will invalidate all games in which Sorsby participates in might correct this real fast.
In my mind it's still an "if" and not a "when" because i need to see it happen.
But i'm starting to believe he could actually do it. I gave up hope for many years that we could land a 5 star commit but what he has done so far is so impressive i'm now like, well why couldn't he pull that off?
The legal argument is laughable... From the ESPN article:
Judge Ken Curry ruled that Sorsby's attorneys demonstrated he will suffer a "probable, imminent and irreparable injury" if he's unable to play for the Red Raiders in 2026 and enjoined the NCAA from prohibiting Sorsby from practicing or playing this fall.
This is like getting pulled over for a DWI and then arguing that life would be hard because you couldn't get a license again.
The guy knew the rules, willingly broke them and created a network to circumvent being detected, GOT CAUGHT BY THE FEDS, and now he's off the hook???
Any idea on how many more recruits we take this year
By the current looks of things as many and whoever we want.
Now the $1M (NIL) question... Can James Franklin get a 5-star recruit to commit to VT?
Or better phrased, when will he get his first 5-star recruit to commit to the good guys?
Besides the legal aspects, there's no appearance of moral standards any more. I dont see Texas Tech stepping in and suspending him (he should be kicked off the team), nor do I see the Big12 doing anything either.
This used to be the kind of thing that got a player kicked out of D1 football and having to beg for a spot D1-AA/FCS team, and the team forfeiting games.
The door is now open for anyone with inside knowledge to place bets beneficial to them and claim a medical issue
1000% and that's what I can't get over here. The line between placing any bet on your own team and point shaving/manipulation is razor thin.
This should be an open and shut issue. And until NIL came into the picture it was.
But now that players are making money, there doesn't appear to be nearly anything that is sufficient to disqualify them. No Other Sports organization operates like this, certainly not the professional ones.
Any idea on how many more recruits we take this year and who the top targets are besides Whitehead? I'm assuming we are looking to take 2-3 LBs still.
Just transferring my comments so other thread can be deleted
Brendan Sorsby had been ruled ineligible by the NCAA after an ESPN reporter showed he had made thousands of bets on college football, including at least 40 bets on his own team. It was only after he was outed for gambling that he produced medical documentation that he suffered from addiction and then attended a 35 day rehab clinic.
A judge yesterday granted his temporary injunction to play this season.
Of all the cases that the NCAA has lost, this is the most ridiculous. Sorsby knew what he was doing was wrong because he didnt place the bets in his own name, he sent money to friends to place bets for him and also put $60K into a FanDuels account under his brother-in-laws name to place more bets.
While I think there is too close a relationship between all sports leagues and the gambling sites, it doesnt change the fact that there were clear rules here that he chose to ignore.
The door is now open for anyone with inside knowledge to place bets beneficial to them and claim a medical issue. Hopefully the NCAA appeals this and wins to shut this door.
Texas Tech would sue, get a friendly judge to rule in their favor and get away with it just like we have seen absolutely everywhere lately.
Rules are only for poor people who can't bribe the judicial system
I dont think I realized how many recruits attend these Official Visits. VTScoop has photos in an article showing the T shirt numbers of recruits from 100 to over 500. Not sure they are sequential but if so thats an enormous effort to organize and review performances.
Fun fact that may only interest me: NC State got a commitment from OL Colt Hauser, which is Cole Hauser's (aka Rip from Yellowstone) son
Yea, this is the point.
With all the data they have, Draftkings/fanduel are able to target users who are bad betters, and feed them bets they are likely to (a) enjoy and (b) lose.
These companies have the data to show that Sorsby is (presumably) spending dozens of hours each week at a college athletics building. There's no reason they couldn't location-gate his activity, or cut him off because he spends so much time near those buildings (side note - if he was winning bets and spending dozens of hours each week inside/near an athletics building, they'd kick him off the app asap).
But these companies will take money from anyone who is willing to part with it.
And ESPN is willing to take money from anyone who will advertise with them.
And NCAA schools are willing to take money from just about anyone.
So the NCAA and their member institutions are okay with these ads being shown during commercial breaks of their product, during the literal broadcast of their product, in the stadiums, etc (we haven't seen a gambling company on a jersey patch yet, but the NCAA has not proactively banned that) but they also want to make sure that their players, coaches, and other non-employee employees don't use the product?
That's wild.