Brendan Sorsby Heads to NFL After Big 12 Drops the Hammer

The Brendan Sorsby saga is officially over for Texas Tech, the Big 12 and college football. After the Big 12 filed a preemptive federal lawsuit to preserve its ability to sanction Texas Tech if Sorsby played, the Red Raiders quarterback announced plans to apply for the NFL Supplemental Draft.

In this episode of Open For Business, John Kurtz breaks down how the Big 12’s legal strategy changed the entire situation, why Brett Yormark and the conference office come out looking like winners, and how Texas Tech ultimately avoided a prolonged fight with the Big 12 and NCAA.

We also discuss what this means for Texas Tech football, why Will Hammond now becomes the focus at quarterback, Cody Campbell’s role in the public response, and how this could impact the future of college sports enforcement.

Topics include:
Brendan Sorsby to the NFL Supplemental Draft
Big 12 lawsuit against Texas Tech
Brett Yormark’s legal strategy
NCAA appeal and injunction fallout
Texas Tech’s quarterback situation
Will Hammond taking over
Cody Campbell’s statement
Texas Tech NIL controversy
Big 12 sanctions and enforcement
What this means for college football

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Transcript

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The Brendan Sorsby saga is over, at least as it relates to the Big Twelve in college sports. Brendan Soresby has announced plans to apply for the NFL supplemental draft after the Big Twelve preemptively took legal action in federal court to make sure they could enforce any sanctions laid down on Texas Tech. Welcome into the Open for Business Big Twelve podcast. I am your host, John Kurtz. Very quick update here that I just wanted to get you because I just did the video yesterday about all the legal ramifications of what is happening with uh my guy Curry Sexton. Shout out to him for doing that. But later in the day, after the Big 12 decided to have the gumption, the intestinal fortitude to go preemptively file a lawsuit in federal court to make sure they could punish, effectively punish Texas Tech if they were to play Brendan Sorsby. Perhaps the tactic worked as it was intended to because Brendan Sorsby and Texas Tech decided it was not going to be worth the effort and worth the trouble. And perhaps that's a lot of the calculation there. And look, sometimes I have to step up and like admit when I'm when I'm wrong, right? Like my take was I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze for the Big 12 to try and get into this with Texas Tech. If you're going to have multiple lawsuits going on with a school in your conference, I don't know that that's something anybody really wants to deal with. Maybe that was the calculus all along and the thought that, like, hey, if we muddy the waters enough here, make it seem like it's going to be contentious enough, difficult enough, combined with the NCAA yesterday filing what they did, trying to get an expedited ruling and a stay on the injunction. It just felt like the walls were closing in in a lot of ways on Sorsby. And there were multiple different ways where this could have worked out very poorly for Sorsby, where he waits, and then maybe on August 28th, like the NCAA had set the deadline on their expedited request, he finds out he actually can't play, and now he's missed the supplemental draft, right? Like that's some of the calculus that you have to uh take into account here. And so I think it's a great, I think the Big 12 definitely comes out looking like a winner here. You get to take the the spoils of, hey, we stood our ground, and we on the principle of not betting on your own team, we stood our ground for everybody in college sports who's been whining and complaining about this. I say whining, like rightfully, people were very upset about this, myself included. The Big 12 took a stand, won. And hey, regardless of what happens with the next guy, that was one of my points. I don't know that it's really going to stop the next guy, or would it really motivate the next conference to take a huge stand? I don't know, but it doesn't matter because you got what you wanted. The 80s now don't have to worry about Brendan Soresby playing. And it's it's honestly looking like a very good calculated move by Bright Yomark and Company to have done what they did the way this was executed. Um, not that like I'm not looking Texas Tech is gonna play Will Hammond at quarterback, and as a Will Hammond guy, I can't sit here and say, well, they're like massive losers in all of this. And Texas Tech never did actually play him down on the football field. Uh, I just think the Big 12, it doesn't have to be like a zero-sum game. You can say the Big 12 comes out looking pretty good out of all of this. And for Texas Tech, they did still support their guy to the very end. They're not making him pay back any of the money, I think, is an important thing to note here that was in Cody Campbell's big letter that came out about this publicly, which is something we do need to talk about here. Uh, but Texas Tech is doing the right thing and they're not going to take any of the money back that they paid Brendan Soresby. I mean, they certainly went above and beyond to support him. If if you're a guy that's gonna be thinking about going to Texas Tech, you know Tech's going to have your back 110% on defending you and whatever your interests are, because they have totally shown that here. Um, but doesn't it just feel like an exhale that we can all move on from this and it's not gonna be something that's gonna drag on for months? Like that, you know, as much as yes, we all love the content, it's like no nobody wanted to see this drag on uh deep into the fall. And like just get it done, get it over with. This is probably best for everybody. Brendan Sorsby will have, I think can be a very good NFL quarterback. Someone's gonna take him in the supplemental draft. He'll make a bunch of money, it'll be okay. I feel like this is truly the best outcome for everybody. Now, one thing that I do want to note here it's that man, the statement that came out uh after this, like Texas Tech on its own socials did have a statement, but most of it they they deferred to Cody Campbell, who, yes, is the chairman of the board at Texas Tech, but how often do you see the chairman of the board making big statements like this on behalf of an athletic department when it's an athletic issue? It was just very interesting to note. There's a long letter that was put out by Cody Campbell. You can find it at Cody C64 on Twitter or just follow me at JLKurts. I retweeted it. Um, but there uh he took the lead on this, right? And it just it feels like Cody Campbell is definitely calling most of the shots at Texas Tech. I mean, I'll go back to Tom Fornelli from the Cover Three podcast, who said a source had told him that Kirby Hokut may not have even really in his heart of hearts been on board. The theory, the theory in the Big 12 room was that Kirby Hocut was not in his heart of hearts on board with doing what Texas Tech was doing, but he's got to keep his job and do what the powers that be want done, right now. I have had nobody told me that. I'm just telling you what Tom Fornelli, a guy on a big national podcast, said somebody told him that that's how the Big 12 felt. And then you see that Cody Campbell is the guy that releases the big message here, you know, University Letterhead statement from Cody Campbell, who, yes, is the chairman of the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University system. But man, I don't know. I mean, it's obviously we've seen you know the Ken Paxton thing, people have blamed that as being one of the real trigger points here, and that may have ultimately cost uh Texas Tech and Brendan Soresby in this situation, being the thing that caused the Big 12 to then go to federal court. And if that's the case, many have pointed out, like Ken Paxton and Cody Campbell seems to be a definite relationship there. We know what he's doing with Ted Cruz. He's got a lot of friends in high places and a lot of power, and he's done a lot of great things for Texas Tech. But yes, he is definitely uh exerting a lot of that power uh around Lubbock. I'm not saying tech fans really have a problem with that. You may say, like, that's fine, John. I'm a tech fan, I don't care at all. Hey, totally fair. He has definitely helped elevate the status of that program. It's just very, very interesting to note here. I will say, Tom Mars, who is one of the hotshot attorneys out there that is always commenting on these things. And is also, by the way, the guy that's uh defending Jerome Tang right now, trying to get his buyout. Tom Mars said, Cody Campbell reveals his true colors by referring to himself, I and my 13 times in a 12-paragraph letter that should have been one paragraph from someone who wasn't complicit in creating the biggest college sports bleep show in recent memory. So that's I'm just this is how people in the industry feel right now. We'll be interesting to see how all of this moves forward with the Protect College Sports Act and what's happening here because I don't think that Campbell did himself a lot of favors in the eyes of many nationally with what happened throughout this Brendan Soresby soccer. But alas, that's all my time for you. I gotta run here. Make sure you do subscribe to the channel. Uh sign up for the Open for Business Big 12 newsletter at OFBnews.com. Fortunately, the timing worked out. I got my newsletter out right before, or just hours before this happened anyway. Uh, but thank you all for being here. Appreciate your time, and I will talk to you soon.