Brendan Sorsby timeline: How sports gambling led to NFL Supplemental Draft rejection

Last week, Brendan Sorsby dropped his lawsuit against the NCAA, signaling the end of his college football career and, seemingly, the ordeal that had engulfed him since the NCAA first launched an investigation into his sports gambling activity.

As it turned out, it was simply the latest chapter in a seemingly never-ending saga.

On Tuesday, June 23, the NFL announced that it would not be holding a supplemental draft this year, denying Sorsby of the most attractive entry ramp into professional football. 

With the decision comes more questions in a case that already had no shortage of them. With the NFL no longer an option for 2026, will Sorsby play professionally elsewhere? Is there a viable road back to college football for him? Is there more legal action on the horizon?

For the better part of the past two months, Sorsby has been the most widely and passionately discussed figure in college football, helping fill the months of emptiness between the end of the 2025 season and the start of the 2026 one. A quarterback who was once viewed as the missing piece for a potential College Football Playoff championship run for Texas Tech instead has become a symbol in the latest debate over NCAA rules and the pervasiveness of sports gambling in 2026.

How, exactly, did we get to this point?

Here’s a look at the timeline of all the various twists and turns in the Brendan Sorsby saga:

Brendan Sorsby timeline

Dec. 15, 2025: After throwing for 27 touchdowns and five interceptions as a junior at Cincinnati, Sorsby enters the transfer portal, where he becomes one of the most widely coveted quarterbacks available.

Jan. 4, 2026: Sorsby commits to Texas Tech, choosing the reigning Big 12 champion over LSU. As part of the deal, Sorsby receives a reported $6 million in NIL money.

March 11, 2026: The NCAA receives a tip about Sorsby’s betting activity from an online gambling book, which had been informed by law enforcement.

April 14, 2026: Texas Tech is notified that the NCAA is conducting an investigation into Sorsby’s sports gambling.

April 27, 2026: Texas Tech announces that Sorsby is checking into a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction. Sorsby reportedly placed thousands of online bets on a variety of sports through a gambling app, a violation of longstanding NCAA rules.

May 18, 2026: Sorsby files a lawsuit against the NCAA in district court in Lubbock County, Texas, seeking an injunction that would make him eligible to compete during the 2026 college football season. The quarterback hires attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who was one of the co-lead counsels in the House v. NCAA case, to represent him. In the lawsuit, he cites the NCAA’s "deeply hypocritical" position on gambling and a "wholesale abandonment of its obligations and duties to promote the well-being" of athletes like himself.

That same day, Texas Tech declares Sorsby ineligible after finalizing "an agreed-upon stipulation of facts" between the university, the NCAA and Sorsby. The school adds that it intends to "quickly initiate the reinstatement process" while the "primary focus remains supporting Sorsby's health and well-being."

May 26, 2026: The NCAA denies Sorsby’s request for reinstatement for the 2026 season. The decision has no impact on his ongoing litigation against the NCAA, which is set for a June 1 court date. Texas Tech says it plans to appeal the NCAA’s ruling. 

"We believe the right thing to do is to not ruin this young man's college career for something that happened four years ago," Red Raiders athletic director Kirby Hocutt said at Big 12 spring meetings in Frisco, Texas. "There's penalties for everything that you do, and we would accept that and expect that, but at the same time, let's help this young man who has been very vulnerable and has admitted to some wrongdoings. Let's give him a second chance and help him."

May 30, 2026: According to court filings before Sorsby’s scheduled hearing in his eligibility lawsuit, the quarterback’s bets totaled at least $90,000. Those wagers included at least 40 bets on Indiana football while Sorsby was redshirting with the Hoosiers as a true freshman in 2022, though he didn’t bet on games in which he played. The documents stated that since transferring to Texas Tech, in a state where online betting is illegal, Sorsby sent approximately $5,000 through Venmo or Zelle to other individuals who placed bets on his behalf.

June 8, 2026: Sorsby’s request for a temporary injunction against the NCAA is granted by Texas district court Judge Ken Curry, who states that Sorsby's attorneys demonstrated their client will suffer a "probable, imminent and irreparable injury" from not being able to compete for Texas Tech during the 2026 season. The decision clears Sorsby to play for the Red Raiders in 2026, though he’ll miss the team’s first two games of the season, against Abilene Christian and at Oregon State.

Curry’s ruling leads to widespread fury across the college football world. In a statement, the NCAA says it “strongly disagrees” with the court’s ruling, which it believes comes with “damaging, far-reaching and broadly destabilizing ramifications.” Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor is more blunt, telling Yahoo Sports it was “f***ing bulls***.” In a separate interview with Yahoo, Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks suggests there need to be “serious conversations” about not playing Texas Tech in any sports. An ESPN report states that Big Ten officials are expected to discuss “a league-wide mandate to not play Texas Tech in any sports."

June 11, 2026: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sends a letter to the Big 12 noting that any effort to sanction Texas Tech would “constitute a violation of federal and state law and expose the conference and its members to antitrust liability.” The letter drew a response from attorneys general in Oklahoma, Kansas and Utah, all of whom said they would back the Big 12 in any legal activity.

June 15, 2026: The Big 12 sues Texas Tech in district court in Dallas for the right to sanction the school if Sorsby competes in any games and the NCAA files an appeal of Curry’s June 8 ruling.

Faced with the mounting legal challenges, Sorsby and Texas Tech agree to part ways, ending his career at the school without ever taking a snap. Following the split, Sorsby plans to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft.

June 17, 2026: Sorsby’s agent, Ron Slavin, claims in a Dallas radio interview that Cincinnati knew about Sorsby’s gambling activity and did not act on it. Cincinnati denies the accusation, saying in a statement that had it known of any impermissible gambling, it would have reported it to the NCAA.

June 23, 2026: The NFL announces it will not hold a supplemental draft in 2026, blocking a path for Sorsby to compete in the NFL in 2026. In a letter to Sorsby, which was obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the NFL writes that "issues presented by your Petition are too significant, and too closely tied to the League’s core integrity interests, to permit meaningful review within the timeline presented.

Kessler tells various media outlets that the NFL’s decision is a violation of the league’s collective bargaining agreement and the law that “We will pursue this immediately with the NFLPA.”