Open For Business: a Big 12 Podcast w/ John Kurtz

Tech Insider Warns: Sorsby Shouldn't Play, This May Only be the Tip of the Icberg

John Kurtz

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0:00 | 38:12

Texas Tech reporter Ryan Hyatt joins the Open For Business Big 12 Podcast to break down the Brendan Sorsby situation, the mounting tension between Texas Tech and the Big 12, and what could happen next as the legal fight continues.

Hyatt has covered Texas Tech football for nearly four decades and makes his position clear: Sorsby should not play for the Red Raiders after violating one of the most important rules in sports. But the situation is far more complicated than the social media outrage suggests.

Could the Big 12 punish Texas Tech if Sorsby takes the field? Would the conference risk another lawsuit? Is the league about to become a test case for whether conferences can enforce their own rules in the new era of college athletics? And could Texas Tech ultimately decide that the cleanest solution is for Sorsby to move on to the NFL supplemental draft?

John Kurtz and Ryan Hyatt also discuss the criticism surrounding Cody Campbell, the national perception of Texas Tech, the hypocrisy of other major college football programs, and why the Red Raiders could become the most polarizing team in the country if Sorsby plays this fall.

Later in the conversation, Hyatt explains why some of the details surrounding the alleged betting activity are especially troubling and why this story may still be far from over.

Topics discussed:

  • Why Ryan Hyatt believes Brendan Sorsby should not play for Texas Tech
  • What the Big 12 could do if Sorsby takes the field
  • Whether Texas Tech and the Big 12 are headed toward a legal showdown
  • Could the conference withhold revenue or impose its own punishment?
  • Why Texas Tech was caught off guard by the court ruling
  • The public pressure surrounding Cody Campbell
  • Why Texas Tech has become the face of the NIL and transfer portal era
  • How Sorsby’s return could affect the Red Raiders’ 2026 season
  • The possibility of an NFL supplemental draft exit
  • Why the betting allegations could become an even bigger story

Follow Ryan Hyatt on X:
https://x.com/RyanHyattMedia

Check out Ryan’s work at The Raiderland:
https://theraiderland.com

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SPEAKER_01

This fall would be my 38th season to cover Texas Tech football as a credential member of the media. I have a degree from Texas Tech. I've lived in West Texas all my life, and I 100% absolutely, unequivocally will state tonight Brendan Soresby should not play a down of football for Texas Tech. The ruling was wrong by the judge.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome back into the Open for Business Big 12 podcast. I am your host, John Kurtz, and I am joined right now by my good friend Ryan Hyatt. Check out the Raiderland.com. Ryan does great work. Make sure you follow him on Twitter as well. He is not only a really good follow, but you can catch him streaming there. It's at Ryan Hyatt Media. What has this week been like? Take me through what it's been like from uh behind enemy lines down in the trenches there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's been a hell of a month this week, and I thank you for having us on, and I appreciate it. And before we kind of get into everything, I want to say I want to establish some uh ground rules right off the bat, okay? Yeah. And you mentioned me covering Texas Tech for a long time. Let's be specific. This fall will be my 38th season to cover Texas Tech football as a credentialed member of the media. Whatever we call the media today, whatever the media may be, with that as a backdrop, I have a degree from Texas Tech. I don't know where it is, it's somewhere in this office, maybe, but I have one. I've lived in West Texas all my life, and I 100% absolutely unequivocally will state tonight Brendan Soresby should not play a down of football for Texas Tech. The ruling was wrong by the judge from Fort Worth, not a local judge, a judge brought in after they uh local guy, uh Philip Hayes recused himself rightfully so. The ruling was wrong. He should not play. He touched the third rail. He did the one thing, the sacrosanct rule of over 100 years in not just college sports, but professional sports and otherwise, that you know that if you violate it, you're done. You don't get to do it. That's not a mistake, that's a willful choice. So, every discussion we have from here, I just want everybody watching this show tonight, watching it when they watch it, to not go, oh, it's just another suck up from Lubbock in West Texas or whatever. No, I don't think Brendan Soresby should play for Texas Tech. Now, shall we begin?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, hey, I appreciate that and and definitely respect that. And that is to me, that's a part of what's the frustrating part to me about this story is it's like what you just said can be true, and I totally agree. I mean, I'm hardline stance on that. Like, this is we have all agreed for a long time, you can't budge on this rule because that slippery slope leads to demise, your WWE, whatever you want to call it. Like, people don't trust the outcomes of games, you can't go down that road. However, that doesn't mean that there are lots of other things that could also be true. Like, is there kind of as typically happens, an outrage off on social media about who can be more outraged about this? And some of it feels performative and it's kind of annoying. And then at the same time, some of the people defending Texas Tech's honor in this, you're like, hey man, if the shoe were on the other foot and this were Texas or somebody else, you wouldn't be doing the same. Like, all of these things can be true. We just have we have so many things going on, and life is kind of lived in the gray area where there's a lot happening, and nobody wants to accept that because it's just turned into like this tribalism thing again.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and and I think uh you just nailed it that we as intelligent people can hold multiple things to be be true. That the NCAA is hypocritical in their enforcement of rules and their embracement of uh you know gambling websites and everything else. Yeah, okay, we can we can say that. Uh we can sit there and say that uh you know the schools that are saying Texas Tech is violating the integrity of the game is the worst thing ever. Well, that's hypocritical. And you can go down the list of things that the schools have done. All that can be true, and yet still at the same time, we can say that when when when he signed on to play football at the college level, accept a scholarship, take the take the bag, take the NIL deal, Indiana, everything else, um, that he violated that. And I'll I'll I'll personalize it and say, and I don't, John, and by the way, John's one of the greatest uh guys in the Big 12 that I've known over the decades of covering Big 12, one of the coolest guys. Uh, did you ever and and this is not a setup question? Did were you ever on the payroll at Kansas State at all for anything? I don't think you were.

SPEAKER_00

Well, kind of, it depends. When I was doing uh some ESPN plus broadcasts like K-State HD TV. Okay, yeah, I did get some checks from K-State.

SPEAKER_01

Uh yeah, and that's a little different. So I was I was directly on the payroll as a play-by-play announcer for Texas Tech at at various times, and I had to check the box and say, I'm taking a check from Texas Tech. I can't bet. Yeah, yeah. I can't do it. If I want the job, if I don't want to get fired, I can't do it. Uh I can't, I can't even, I couldn't even be in a a bracket context at various times. That was the deal. I had to say, if I want to do the job, you know, I have to do. Well, Brendan Soresby had a job to do, it was play quarterback as for college football teams, and you can't do this. And if you do, you get fired. And the whole idea of irreparable harm, and I again I'll say I think the ruling by the by the judge was just insane. But so I just kind of wanted to get that out there because I know that people are gonna say, Oh, you've got a guest on from Lubbock, blah blah blah. Now we can get into the weirdness of the whole deal, and it's weird. Yeah, no idea where who is suing whom tonight. I did a show earlier. Have I missed anything in the last hour and a half on who's suing whom?

SPEAKER_00

That's such a great point because it's like, yeah, I mean, the Big 12 is trying to determine whether or not they're going to the Big 12, is they have meetings about meetings about meetings this week with eight different people, and we have six different quotes from Brett Yormark saying everybody's mad and we haven't done anything yet. And Jeffrey Kessler, of course, represented Brendan Sorsby. He's threatening everywhere. Yeah, that guy, man, he's threatening to sue the Big 12. So is the attorney general of Texas. There was a report earlier that like Texas Tech itself had just said, like, hey, we're ready to go back to court. Uh, and so you've got all this sitting around while the Big 12 tries to decide what to do. And I'm like, look, my take on it, I'll be curious what you say. My take on it is if I'm the Big 12, I understand again, as somebody who wants to defend this hard line, the the urge to be like, hey, we have to put our foot down and do something. However, I don't think if the Big 12 stops it here, that it's gonna make a difference the next time this happens with somebody. And it will happen because that then it'll just be up to the the kid, the person, and they'll be like, Well, hey, look, if we just go find whatever judge it is, yeah, that they may issue the injunction, and like, you know, that's probably what will happen. I don't think the Big 12 is gonna make some moral stand that will catch on like it's a big movement, like it's forest gump, and everyone's gonna start running with you. Like, I don't think yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen if you do it, so I don't know that it's worth the mess, but I know there are a lot of other people.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's more like Will Farrell, we're going streaking. Who's going with me? Exactly. Nobody's streaking with you. Um, I had a great US history teacher when I was in the eighth grade here uh in West Texas, and he had a great line. It was talking about the American Revolution, and that you have the ability to assert any right you want. You can assert. Can you exert that right? And right now, I think you're seeing both the Big 12, Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, Texas Tech to a lesser extent. Everybody's asserting what they can do. Who can exert that right? And how can they um make that come to bear on the party that they are aggrieved with at the moment? And right now, uh 15 schools in the Big 12 are aggrieved with Texas Tech. You know, what can that lead, what can the league do is the interesting question to me. And we have all the bylaws and everything else. And you go, okay, well, you know, it seems to me if I were on the outside looking in and you know, not a Texas Tech guy, I could just say, okay, just say, hey, uh pass a resolution, just like you did on tortillas on the field, and say, anybody who's admitted to or uh been convicted in a court of law or otherwise for betting on their own team or betting on their sport can't play football or can't play in the Big 12. Well, you know it's gonna get challenged to court, right? Yeah, so we assert that. Can you exert that in the time frame? And this to me is turning into and I, you know me, I'm I'm a policy wonk. That this is a really interesting case for college sports and otherwise to say if if the NCAA can't do it, and everybody's saying we want rules and we want to be governed, well, if the NCAA can't do it, can a smaller collective do it that's agreed upon with 16 teams that we're gonna have these bylaws and we're gonna do this? Is that possible at a smaller level as opposed to 124, 300 teams at the NCAA level? Then we get into the whole idea of you know, in the long run, okay, how long is it gonna take this to get decided? The trial date is February 8th, I believe. I think it's the 8th.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

On the initial deal with SORSB, the NCAA has filed an expedited hearing within the state of Texas and the district court, it would go to the district seventh court in Amarillo, Texas. Uh, that could get moved up, and I think it will. I think that appeals court will hear it not on the merits of the case, but you know, was the law followed? Was it you know judiciously done and everything else? I really think that we'll hear that in the next couple of weeks. But all this to me is are for everybody who says they want rules. Is this the moment for the Big 12 to say, okay, you want rules? We can we're doing it now. What happens? And I don't know. I I have no answer. I wish I did. Well, this podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, that's that's a really fascinating setup to that. Like, will the Big 12 be some sort of trial balloon almost for like can there's been all this talk about breaking away and self-governance? And the SEC is speaking of the SEC has certainly asserted that they feel like they could self-govern themselves and pull that off. Would it actually work if they tried to exert that? Would the Big 12 be some kind of trial with that? But my other question that pops up as I'm listening to you say that is does the is the Big 12's gamble then like, okay, we're gonna punish you. I know that you're gonna sue. I know there will be litigation coming back, but what's then the timeline on that? And this is these are things I don't know. I I have no legal degree, I have a communications degree from a state school. I don't know how that works. But like, do you then say, well, we'll see if they could if they can get their legal challenge in fast enough so that he could actually be like, I have no idea how all that works then, and what's crisscrossing in the legal system and what actually holds, and it could get it could become a total mess.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I I think if you're if you're again trying to put myself in the Big 12 position, do you say, okay, what can we do? Uh, what do we control? We control the purse. Think of them as the House of Representatives, they control the purse, they have the power of the purse. Could they come back and say um Texas Tech won't get a disbursement of money based on every game that Brendan Soresby plays in because we have deemed him ineligible at a conference level, you violated that, we can't vacate games, we can't do this, but we can't take money away. We can say, I don't know. And then, of course, that's challenged again in the court of law, and it goes it would go on well beyond the time Brendan Soresby would be playing for Texas Tech. So then we get to the idea right now to me of what's it worth to Texas Tech as an institution. You know, my my title tonight on my podcast was are Texas Tech and the Big Twelve breaking up? And I don't think they are. Tech doesn't want to break up. Big 12 doesn't want to break up with tech. And here's why divorces cost money, and this would have cost a lot of money. And tech and the Big 12, we're all poor, and poor people can't get a rich divorce, so they gotta stay together. So that's not gonna happen. So this whole idea of you know forcing tech out or tech going, where are you gonna go? It's pretty obvious the Big Ten don't want you. It's pretty obvious the SEC doesn't want you. So everybody gotta live together on this deal. What's the equitable resolution? And I would hope right now, I I think the best situation for Texas Tech they've got a lot of people not named Cody Campbell that have money. Somebody needs to come up with a checkbook. There we go. See, I got one. Hey Brendan, love you, brother. Never played it down for us. You already took about 1.5 million in NIL from us that we got to go to court to get back. We'll give you another 2 million. Get in the supplemental draft and get your ass out of here. Yeah and go to the NFL because the path is more clear now to get there than it was a week ago when everybody thought he was gonna get a full year suspension. And then Goodell comes in and says, All right, just like Terrell Pryor, you can come in, but you're suspended for a year. Now it's two games. That's nothing for the Cleveland Browns to take him. Yeah, go to the NFL, get out. Because I think that's where he was gonna go a week ago today. A week ago tonight, I think he thought, all right, this is over. I'm going in the supplemental draft. What's the penalty gonna be? Well, now it's only two games. Go.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, and I mean on that front, so you you're saying like you you think that was the expectation, which of course that seemed to be everybody's expectation, but even even for those in Lubbock, like Joey Maguire, Kirby Hokutt, do you think they were caught off guard by this decision?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, 100%. I think every statement that led up to last Friday or this Monday morning or whenever whenever we were, that the first thing they did, you know, on the university standpoint is they were not involved in the lawsuit, they didn't have anybody represented. I don't even know that they filed other than the amicus brief, or is it amicus or amicus? I never know. Uh saying, hey, this guy, you know, we're providing this support, blah, blah, blah. By the way, tech didn't put him in rehab, he did it on his own. Tech can't do that. Um, they were just like, we're washing our hands. Now we're gonna turn him ineligible. We do what we do for every player. We do that, we file a reinstatement, denied. File the appeal. Last Friday, NCAA says no. And I think last Friday, Tech was like, Oh good, okay, yeah, we're done. We did everything we can look good on this. And then, holy crap, at 8 35 Central Time Monday morning, judge comes back and says, Oh, yeah, two games, come on. Now tech's scrambling. Now they're scrambling, and I think that's why you saw this week a delay in response by Texas Tech officials and kind of a muddied response early on in the week. And it was crystallized yesterday by Kirby O'Cutt, um Joey McGuire down in Houston. At what year is it? We're having touchdown clubs, we're having touchdown club meetings.

SPEAKER_00

It's 1958. This has been the return of the touchdown and the quarterback clubs, man. Like all the good stuff happens at the at the touchdown and quarterback clubs.

SPEAKER_01

Are we doing this? Where uh where are we? Uh uh we're in uh Chapman, Kansas at the uh touchdown club meeting for the Wildcats. Boy, everybody at the Lions Club tonight. So McGuire then has to go out, you know, last night, and he the dumbest thing he said was you didn't commit murder. Okay, yeah, we know that. But he towed the line and he gave Tech was giving the path yesterday to not play Soresby immediately upon eligibility. That he's got to meet certain things, he's gotta do this, and Maguire saying, Yeah, hey, you know, uh it's just not so simple as just a guy coming back from rehab and everything's perfect. That they I think they were trying to get on a page yesterday at Texas Tech of saying, just because he's eligible doesn't mean we have to play him.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

And that's been a loss. The path was there in the statement.

SPEAKER_00

What was the question? Something about No, I asked you if you're caught off guard. I think that's a great point that you make. That, like, yeah, the the the tenor of the response has definitely changed from tech, you know, in the last 24 hours. And yeah, now it feels like, you know, and some of that is some of this is where I wonder, like this this is where I said, and look, far be it from me. Okay, but I my day job is doing PR. And I was like, you know, if I were advising Texas Tech on this, I I certainly like you said, I think that statement, if it's left fairly open-ended, I would say, okay, we're gonna do that. Let's let's leave it at that. Or even if the statement is, hey, uh, because I think a lot of people have like wanted some of this, like just say, hey, we think it's best for him in his recovery if he's like around the team and stays with us. Yeah, uh, we clearly think it's best for us if he plays quarterback for us. And look, the judge ruled and said two games and he can play. So that's what we're doing. And then just like shut it down from there and don't. Then I would say just don't yeah, just shut up.

SPEAKER_02

Just don't talk too much.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And then, but unfortunately, you know, I mean, we know Cody likes to talk, and he went on a podcast, and so he said things, and then uh I yes, like Joey, and this, I'm sure this was like a previously scheduled appearance that he had to go do, and you know you're gonna cast things about it. So, like that is a tough situation. But I think in an ideal world it would have been, yeah, you leave yourself some wiggle room and then just let things breathe while the Big 12 tries to sort out what it's gonna do on its end.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and you know, going back to Cody Campbell, uh, Texas Tech chairman Porter Regents, by the way.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I I I feel like I have to say that, and uh, not that anybody's paying me to do it, but you know, it gets lost sometimes that he is the lead voice for the entire university system. He's not just some old fat offensive, he's not fat anymore, by the way. He's not some old offensive lineman just out there spending money, you know, like Bach Hogg rolling in. Uh, he is the voice of Texas Tech University and the university system. One thing though I've learned after having raised an offensive lineman in my house, they're not subtle. And Mr. Campbell, Chairman Campbell, whatever you uh, you know, I've I've known him, obviously, I covered him and everything else. He's you know, I like him. He's a good guy. We get crossways sometimes. I think I'm a little too blunt for his liking on certain things, and I would he would probably say the same thing, you know, going the other way. Uh, but he's not real subtle on different things, so that makes him a target. And when you're a target, uh, what you say gets lost sometimes in translation. That it's just easy to say, oh, he's coming from this position, I'm not going to listen to what he's saying. And I think we've seen a little bit of that, not a lot, a little bit of that on this front. Uh, and then that doesn't even get into the Save uh Protect College Sports Act, and that that's all we're gonna have to do another show on that that whole dead on arrival, but you know, uh so you know, Campbell, I think he makes himself a target, and with everything that's going on with Texas Tech right now with Swordsman, everything else, it becomes really easy for the rest of the country in college athletics, and and maybe rightfully so to just discount and immediately say, Oh, he's just blowhard, you know, no matter what he's saying. Fair or not, as you as you know, working in PR, we don't have to like it, but we have to understand that perception is not reality, but perception has to be accepted and understood. Yeah, and you have to change that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Uh first of all, I am glad I'm glad that you point out the the chairman of the board thing. I do think that is an important like people do not yeah, there are just and part of it, you you bring up the Protect College Sports Act. That is something else to consider here because you already have, and this is where I think I I have defended Texas Tech fans somewhat, even the ones that I really disagree with over this issue, because I can't imagine that they would be coming on your feed.

SPEAKER_01

That's so shocking.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but you know, it's like look, there are a lot of a lot of people upset with Cody Campbell right now because of the Protect College Sports Act and everything that's happening with that. And so now, oh, here comes something with your school that's controversial. Well, then, you know, I'm not gonna listen to any like I have blinders on, I know what my thought is on you. Like a lot of the hate is gonna come in because there's built-up animosity about what's happening big picture in college sports. And I think so much of the outrage off that was happening on social media between people in the media and just na national college football fans is because tech has, in my eyes, pretty unfairly been painted as the poster child of the NIL and Portal era because people see, like, oh, well, I don't like what this has to. Turned into now. I know that tech is the school everybody says has just spent their way into this. So I hate them. I have built up animosity. Or if you're in the Big 12, it's like, man, well, we used to beat tech and they just blowtorched us last year and didn't do so in a very subtle fashion. They let us know about it too. So like I have a lot of animosity here and I'm going to take it all out right now. So you just there's a lot of those forces working there. And I think some of that's working against Cody Campbell too.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's a little bit of uh this Soresby deal. You I don't tech did not intentionally give people the hammer to hit the nail, but it's out there and they're gonna take advantage of that. And I think for the most part, up until fairly recently, a lot of schools kind of looked, or maybe a lot of fans, and I, you know, I could be wrong, we're looking at tech going, well, if they can do it, we can do it. But I've been saying for a while that tech should be the poster child for hey, let's let's get our people together, let's get our NIL, you know, we we gotta have at least somebody who's made a little money who graduated from this school. Let's do it the right way now, let's do it the legal way, and we can make that impact. And I think we've been seeing that over the last year, two years, that more schools have done that. I think you're seeing that with Kansas State, that they are finding money that maybe they wouldn't have spent two or three years ago because they had to spend it on things and not direct impact on people. And then when they realized, oh wow, I can I can spin it on the athlete, I can spin it on this, there's immediate direct return. People were more willing to open up their wallet, you know. Tech tech led that, but now again, you know, this thing's getting kind of flipped around, and you know, people are going, well, Texas buying, buying whatever. And it's it's it's created this maelstrom of everything that's wrong with college sports is Texas Tech. Right or wrong. Yeah, which I wrote today that Texas Tech is like apparently the most powerful athletic program in college athletics today, because in the last 24 hours I've read that only tech can save college athletics by not playing Soresby, that only Texas Tech can save the integrity, according to Joe Castiglione at Oklahoma, who and I think Joe Mixon agreed with his statements, you know, that that only Texas Tech can be the paragon right now and save college athletics. And that may be where a lot of people where the hypocrisy of some of the uh acrimonious statements coming Texas Tech's way, uh look and go, hey, that's fine. Tech may be screwing up, probably are, but they play they are. No, I'm gonna say it.

SPEAKER_00

They play there are, but to sit there and all these Georgia, Georgia? That's I was literally I was waiting for that. I was like, the Georgia president is the other one.

SPEAKER_01

That to sit there and say that it's really Texas Tech, okay. Texas Tech may have a problem in this, but everybody else seems to be absconding their duty and just saying, Well, yeah, it's got to be out there in West Texas. So Texas Tech now the most powerful, powerful school in college sports.

SPEAKER_00

Amazing. I tell you what, look, I I wish for it so badly for the Big 12's sake that this would have been what happened because the Big 12 would not be dealing with any of this mess. But man, dude, uh Brendan Soresby, like we saw LSU, it got FOIA that LSU had a contract out there for him, right? Like LSU thought they had a shot at if this were Lane Kiffin dealing with the Brendan Soresby situation and the governor of Louisiana who's always involved in everything. You imagine like man, Vanity Fair would be back out there talking to Kiff if you can. Like, I don't, it would be insane. So I don't look, as you you say it would be a mistake if Texas Tech plays Soresby. I guess question one is do you think that's where this it's an impossible question, but do you think that he is going to play? Do you think that's where this is headed? And if he does, like how much has the how much has the season changed? Because like the I mean, they'll be villain number one in college football this year, maybe overtaking Lane Kiffin, honestly, in in that regard. Like there is going to be so much more attention on tech and so much more hate and and vitriol because of all of this if he were to play. And that, you know, maybe we overblow that a bit, but I think it will add an extra dimension to the season that makes it a little trickier and more of a test for like the culture that, frankly, I think Joey Maguire has done a great job of building there.

SPEAKER_01

You asked me 84 questions right there, so I'm gonna try to get through them. Um, I think he'll play. I operate a lot of times on Occam's razor, which the the most logical answer is probably the one that's gonna happen. So the most logical answer right now is that a a court in Texas has rule melee play. Uh, Texas Tech is keeping him on the roster. They brought him in as an insurance policy because they weren't sure that Will Hammond would be ready and healthy, which we haven't even got to that. We need to do that in about two weeks, by the way. We have a quarterback controversy in Lubbock. Um, so all of that says, okay, yeah, he probably plays. Uh, if he plays, what does that mean for this team? I think whether he plays or a healthy Will Hammond plays, it doesn't affect the trajectory of Texas Tech on the field at all in the regular season. You look at the teams they don't play on the schedule. Tech has a cupcake schedule, they'll be favored in every game. Houston, the only team in the first five games they play that has a heartbeat. Um, that whether it's Sorsby or Hammond, they were probably going to be in the Big 12 championship game, barring massive injuries and just horrible things. So I don't think it affects the trajectory of the season on the field up to that point. Now, then we get into the postseason and say, all right, uh, you couldn't score a point against freaking Oregon. Uh, you had a banked up quarterback in Morton. That's why you were bringing in uh either Soresby or a healthy Hammond to get beyond that point. You know, so how how much do you go beyond that? Or the Big 12 title game. Then uh we we just look at the the aspect within the Big 12 and you know how would this reflect on the Big 12? It'll probably make them money because if Brendan Swordsby plays every game he's on TV, what are they gonna talk about? Who who's gonna tune it? You know, garbage sells, yeah, controversy sells.

SPEAKER_00

The hate watch, you know, people hate watching watch, yeah, and there'll be real hate watch.

SPEAKER_01

There was hate watch, you know, against Michigan when that their coach was still in signs and everything else up there, and they you know said, You should not do that. All right, all right, we're done. So, you know, from the Big 12. I'm not saying this is good for the Big 12, this is not good, all right. But we real we live in the reality of people tune in for dirty laundry, and we got it, and that's what's gonna be out there on display, one way or the other, I think.

SPEAKER_00

So well, and you're right. That's why to me the you know, the boycott talk I thought was the the silliest of any of it because like you're gonna go to ESPN and Fox and tell them, hey, um two months before the season, yeah. We're not these those Texas tech games we're gonna have. Yeah, like no ESP is like, can we put more on? Yeah, yeah, right. Can tech can we can we play tech Friday and Saturday nights in the same week?

SPEAKER_01

The ISO shot. You got the ISO shot of Soresby warming up with the fan duel graphic crawling across the bottom, Texas Tech minus you know 175 today versus fill in the blank. And then the 800 number. If you happen to be a degenerate gambler or an album in Soresby, please call this number.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we'll have the that's right. I apologize.

SPEAKER_00

The the the bet MGM Cody Campbell fan cam. You know, you can you can tune in on an ultimate, you can go to like ESPN U to watch Cody Campbell ISO the entire game watching the game.

SPEAKER_01

That would be actually pretty good if the Big 12 launched that during tech games, a secondary channel like the SEC has done, and it's at a sports book or whatever, you know, and you're interviewing people live game betting, everything. What do you think? How do you think Soresby's gonna do in the second quarter? We've got the over that's I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00

That's it's I mean, no, uh that listen, we can do a whole nother podcast on that because I'm like, look, I'm open to that conversation of like I feel bad for Soresby that yeah, I mean he's being hyper-targeted as like an 18-year-old with a bunch of expendable income, and you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_01

Anyway, hey, the the the worst, the worst bets, the most problematic bets I have, if it's reported correctly, that he bet unders on Indiana uh players, yeah, betting against your team. And I know this is not a uh a sports betting type discussion or whatever, but the people that are saying you didn't bet against your team, if he bet unders against his teammates, that's a bet against your team, and that's also coming with knowledge of the game plan and everything else, and I hate that. And it exactly just yeah, that bothers me tremendously.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I really didn't like, I mean, I I the basketball stuff I didn't love either because theoretically you're boys with the men's basketball team. That's like a little insider trading there on what's going on with the men's hoops team, you know, what to do.

SPEAKER_01

Who are you working out with at the ATC? Who are you who are you interacting with? Yeah, but yeah, we can do a whole if you want to do a whole show on the actual betting aspect and why this bothers me. Um, you know, some people may not know this. I was involved with a uh a sports town service as a media relations director for him for a year and a half. And I kind of I know the business, I know how this works, and there were a lot of things that have been glossed over that I think have yet to come out on the Soresby aspect and and people saying, well, he never you know really impacted a game. BS I'm not saying he fixed games, all right? I'm not saying he fixed games, but the minute a college athlete places a bet, somebody knows he's a college athlete. Somebody is aware that he placed that bet. And when he was laying off those bets, yeah, that people were aware that the Indiana quarterback, the whatever, was saying this that's problematic. And I promise you right now, I know this for a fact. Um Vegas and other institutions are looking at every single game he ever bet on, ever played in, looking for any irregularities. And that's that's not that he fixed games, but that could be a betting irregularity that other people who were aware of his bets came in heavier. Let's let's say your buddy, I'm sorry, we don't need to do this on this show, do we? Do you want to?

SPEAKER_00

I can no, I'm I'm here for it. I'm here for it. I'm interested.

SPEAKER_01

So your buddy who your buddy who bets maybe five dollars on the uh fill-in-the-blank game, all of a sudden he bets $30, right? If that can be tracked back, and trust me, they're looking at it. Well, on Wall Street, do you know what we call that? Insider trading, right? It's insider trading, and people go to jail. Yeah, that's where we have a problem with in my opinion, of the people saying, Well, he didn't throw a game, he didn't do it. No, no, no, no, no, no. It doesn't work that way, it's a different deal. And I think that's just beginning to unravel. And I've watched the uh, and again, I have to couch everything I'm saying by allegedly and nothing, nothing proven, nothing whatever, but I've also watched in these cases, and we can go back to Iowa and Iowa State, the FBI kind of lets other people do their uh hunting for them, whether it's the NBA or the sports books or anything else, and then they kind of come back in at the end of the deal. So the people saying, Well, there's nothing criminally has been done, he bet underage.

SPEAKER_00

That's okay. I'm so glad you hit on it. Because I've wondered that the whole time. I'm like, how how has that not been a bigger piece of this? Because he was 18 doing this, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

He he he he admitted to breaking the law, so in and of itself, that's a small fish type thing. But are there other fish? And let me tell you, there's always other fish, allegedly, when you go fishing in these ponds, and I think that's something that Texas Tech should definitely have to consider going through the summer because I've learned doing this for damn near 40 years, that it's always the tip of the iceberg on these stories, and the initial stuff that comes out, and this is still very initial, we're weeks in four weeks, five weeks, back to April, when tech and everybody else and the NCAA and everybody else are we're still just barely in, all right. So that's why I tell a lot of tech people hey, just cool your jets a little bit on some of this stuff. Uh, we can do a whole nother show on the sports betting aspect of it, and I will be happy to do it. Man, I have a little bit of experience and knowledge in the realm.

SPEAKER_00

Well, hey, I tell you what, we should do that later this summer. I Lord knows there is going to be another news story with this that pops at some point. There will be another angle, another entry point to that. We should definitely do it because I'm interested. I did not know about your history with all of that. So I'm I'm kind of fascinated by this. Uh for now, Ryan, where can the people uh find your stuff? What's the best way to uh to follow you and support you and what you do?

SPEAKER_01

Well, unless somebody shows up and knocks on the door later on tonight. Uh, the Raiderland.com is the main site. You can uh get everything on our uh YouTube channel, Ryan Hyatt's Raiderland. We're having a ton of fun on our Facebook page. I I thought it was just for old people, but then I realized I'm old. Uh Ryan Hyatt's Raiderland on Facebook. We uh do a lot of different things on there. Uh and then Twitter X at Ryan Hyatt Media. We're on every night, 5:30 Central. We go about a half hour or so, the daily broadcast. And I I want to say again, it's a pleasure to be on. Um, one of the coolest things about covering the Big 12 and everything was getting to meet people like you, John. And you're one of the best. And I will say this out of all the schools, out of all the people, you know, that that we met over the years, I never met anybody from Manhattan, Kansas, or Kansas State that wasn't a good person.

SPEAKER_00

Hey.

SPEAKER_01

Other other than Matt Walters.

SPEAKER_00

I I knew it was coming. I knew I was like, we haven't had a Walters dig yet on the show. I knew that was coming. So thank you for getting that in.

SPEAKER_01

Who has Chili Dog in their email account?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Who does that? Takes a bold man. It takes a bold man. I tell you what.

SPEAKER_01

No, I'm just kidding. He's great people too. But I'm serious. And you you guys are lucky, and I appreciate what you do. We tune in every day and we dip in and we uh we watch what you're doing, the way you cover the Big 12. Uh, and the uh, you know, I think the fairness about it, and that's how you know uh you're doing it right, is that everybody hates you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, that everybody's mad. That's how you know you're doing it right, John. So thanks for what you're doing. It's good stuff.

SPEAKER_00

I appreciate it, Ryan. Appreciate the friendship and all the help over the years. And uh, we got to do this more often, my friend. This is awesome.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. I'm in. I'm in.