REPORT: Cincinnati Now Facing NCAA Questions; Bearcats Accuse Texas Tech of Tampering

The Brendan Sorsby saga just keeps getting messier for the Big 12.

According to reporting from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the NCAA has sent Cincinnati a letter of inquiry related to Brendan Sorsby’s time with the Bearcats. At the same time, Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield accused Texas Tech of reaching out to Sorsby before the season was over.

John Kurtz breaks down the latest from Big 12 Media Days, including what this means for Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Brendan Sorsby, Joey McGuire, Scott Satterfield, Cody Campbell, and Brett Yormark as the Big 12 tries to move forward after weeks of tension.

Plus, John discusses the reported meeting between Texas Tech and Big 12 officials, whether the league is actually ready to bury the hatchet, and why Cody Campbell’s comments about Big 12 schools needing to spend more money may be exactly what the conference needs to hear.

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Transcript

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Here's what we now know about Texas Tech, Cincinnati, and the Brendan Soresby situation. There was a meeting last week between Texas Tech and Big 12 officials to try to bury the hatchet. Cincinnati is now apparently under investigation by the NCAA, at least they've been sent a notice by the NCAA. Cincinnati head coach Scott Satterfield has accused Texas Tech of tampering with Brendan Soresby. And Texas Tech's Cody Campbell wants everybody in the league to rise up instead of trying to bring them back to the pack. Welcome in to Open for Business. We have a lot to discuss, obviously. I am John Kurtz. It is Big 12 Media Days. I'm still live here on Radio slash podcast row as everybody is tearing down day two. It's been crazy. I got a ton of interviews. You're going to see all that stuff trickling out on the channel over the next week or so. But we've got to address this. And I know, I know I just did a video yesterday about the press conference fireworks between Brett Yormark and uh a Texas Tech radio host. We're not going down that road again, but Ross Dellinger got the real scoop here. While everybody was sort of distracted by that interaction at the podium yesterday, Ross Dellinger, who was on the scene, best newsbreaker in the game right now from Yahoo Sports, he got the real story and he dropped bombs in his reporting and his news story earlier today. So let's talk about it. I mean, first and foremost, one of my biggest questions, I told you, coming into this was what's the tension like in the league? How much tension is there still between Texas Tech and everybody else after everything that happened with the Brendan Sorsby saga? Joey McGuire was pretty open about getting a lot of texts from coaches, checking in on him, and that, hey, there may be some feelings that need to be repaired here. Like everybody was caught off guard at tech by the reaction, strong reaction from some ADs like Gene Taylor at K-State, Jamie Pollard at Iowa State. We now know the Big 12 and Texas Tech have tried to squash the beef. Here's what Ross Dellinger said in his story Big 12 officials and Texas Tech executives gathered at Cattlemans, which is a steakhouse, to air grievances, seriously discuss uh the future of the league, and most importantly, bury the proverbial hatchet in the wake of the Brendan Soresby saga. Those at the meeting describe it as a positive step in the long-term future of the two entities coexisting. For Texas Tech and the Big 12 and its 15 other schools, lingering issues remain. So the vibe here throughout the story is this was positive, this was productive, but it's not like this just fixed everything overnight. Look, I'm thrilled to hear this. My message has been one of like, let's get some harmony from everybody. You know this if you've been listening to the channel. I actually liked, for the most part, the way Brent Yormark handled things on the podium yesterday. Don't let this become a runaway train where it's a bunch of questions asked about Soresby. Try to put the lid on it as much as you can. And I think he did a pretty successful job of that. It's just now the story breaks, which I would imagine the Big 12 played a role in giving Ross Dellinger some of this information, right? I'm sure that this was a preferred strategy, as opposed to having it come out in the podium or a breakout or something like that. Get them talking to the biggest newsbreaker in the game, have it come out in a more controlled environment in this story, right? So I'm happy for that. Big 12 and Texas Tech have to get along, man. Whether they like it or not, divorce is expensive. And when we're talking about currency at the top of college football, both the Big 12 and Texas Tech don't have enough money to do this divorce, right? You're stuck together. You got to find a way to move forward. Um, Joey McGuire, it's pointed out in the story, signaled that more time is needed before all wounds are healed, by the way. Here's what he said Quote, I think it's tough. I think there's going to be a process. There's a lot of finger pointing. It's going to be something we'll have to work through. So they have started that. Will they finish it? We'll see. Will there be another incident? Will there be tortillas? Will there be a Friday night game against Houston? A lot has really added up. For now, though, it appears that is moving in the right direction, except of course, maybe with Cincinnati, because what we have now is tampering allegations toward Texas Tech, and we have the University of Cincinnati potentially being under investigation by the NCAA, according to Ross Telcher's reporting. All right. So there's there's a lot still to go here. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel. Many of you watch, but don't subscribe. It does help a lot if you give me that one click to subscribe to the channel. So as far as Cincinnati goes, how many times have we heard Texas Tech fans say throughout this process, what about Cincinnati? Why are we not getting more info on what has happened with Cincinnati where Brendan Soresby played for two years? We know that before last season, they were at least aware because of Prohibits of him trying to download a gambling app, supposedly gave him some information about it, asked him, like, hey, you know, are you gambling? Got the answer no, and then moved on. And so I get why tech fans are like, why not look into this further? Was this like some willful ignorance almost on the part of Cincinnati to not investigate deeper? Those are all fair questions. And back to yesterday at the podium, that's what I would have asked. I would have framed it more like that. Well, the Big 12 is now going to have to deal with this, and the story continues because according to Ross Dellinger, the NCAA has sent a letter of inquiry to the University of Cincinnati related to Soresby's time at the school. Uh, an inquiry letter is not uncommon and doesn't necessarily signal wrongdoing, but it's often the start of an investigative process over possible rules violations. As far as Cincinnati's response, Cincinnati spokesman declined to comment uh on the specific letter, but said, quote, we've had continuous conversations with the NCAA since initial reports began. As we have stated before, we do not believe any athletics official or staff member was aware of any impermissionable uh sports wager. Poor Scott Satterfield of Cincinnati. This bomb dropped on him like three hours before he was heading up to the podium that I'm looking at right now here in Frisco. So he, of course, got asked about it, and his quote was pretty short quote, I can't really make any comments about the ink. So he didn't say anything. That's the smart move. If you if the NCAA investigation, like you don't want to be doing that from the podium, just tough that he got that thrust on him right before going out there today. So look, tech fans, I would assume you're you're happy about this, right? This is what you've been screaming about the whole time. Why are we not looking more into what happened at Cincinnati? And that's multi-pronged, right? People have been coming after Texas Tech, but also I think a tech fan would look at this and say, Have you guys done your job and known that this was happening? We wouldn't have gone after this guy in the portal and then been screwed. Maybe not screwed, because look, you know, I love Will Hammond. But we would not have been in this position to take all this heat and now have to rely on a quarterback coming off of an ACL injury to be ready to go at the beginning of the season, or at least as close to it as possible. So I get the frustration, tech fans. This is a W for you, Cincinnati being looked at by the NCAA. I don't think that part's a W for the Big 12 because it now prolongs this story. And at the same time, you know, Chris Fanini, who I know was here yesterday from The Athletic, he puts a quote out there that is Scott Satterfield accusing Texas Tech of tampering. All right. So here's the quote you can see on the screen. We already heard uh that schools had reached out, Texas Tech in particular had already reached out with four games left. Then he's talking about the financial realities of it. But that's that's the bomb there. We'd already heard that schools had reached out, Texas Tech in particular had already reached out with four games left. So now Tech finally got their wish, Cincinnati gets the inquiry from the NCAA, and now Scott Satterfield's like, well, you guys tampered anyway. Back and forth we go. Back and forth we go with Texas Tech versus the rest of the league. Um man, I I I have to chuckle a little bit because it's like every time you think that the story is gonna die, it doesn't die. I I am very interested to see what any NCAA investigation will turn up with Cincinnati. I also do wonder what what the NCAA can do at this point because how many times have we seen them be rendered virtually powerless when they try to enforce anything? They can't enforce the gambling rules on Brendan Soresby, apparently, according to a judge's ruling. So can they put the hammer down on Cincinnati if it's found? I I don't know anymore. Cincinnati may be lawyering up as we speak. Like, I have no idea, guys. But what I do know is that this part of it is going to be bad news because it keeps this in the news cycle, and we will continue to hear about the Soresby piece of it. Dellinger even wrote that in his column. Like, that yeah, guess what? The story is just beginning. Uh, for Texas Tech's part in it, it does say in Dellinger's story they will honor the compensation already paid to Soresby. Um, and then Joey Maguire responded to some criticisms of, like, hey, couldn't you guys have done more background work on this, figured it out? Maguire called the transfer portal speed dating and said there isn't enough time to fully bet flare backgrounds, which I think that's fair. I wouldn't really push too hard on tech here, man. It's you do not have much time to be evaluating here. It's I'm not gonna blame anybody for missing something like this necessarily, because you've got a very limited amount of time and resources to figure it all out. Go read Max Olsen's story about what Oklahoma State had to do with Eric Morris and the visits and how crazy that was. I've I've got legit sympathy for these coaches trying to deal with that. But Cody Campbell is also quoted in the story, and this is something I want to really zero in on. And tech fans, listen to me. This is where I am on board with you big time. I will level with you big time here, okay? Cody Campbell says, quote, we don't have a problem with the Big 12. We want to find a way to get all other Big 12 schools to elevate themselves. Everybody needs to do some version of what we've done. That's the path forward for this conference. A rising tide lifts all boats. People not on board with that, and those that want everyone worse so they can be relatively better, will have a problem with those institutions. Now, to me, that feels like a shot at some of these schools that are really you can sense some animosity from some in the league about like, man, Texas Tech has so much money, and almost on board with what some of the national criticism is that I think is unfair toward tech of like these guys just win because they came in with a bunch of billionaires and oil money, and it's suddenly legal, and we don't like this, and it feels dirty, and all that stuff, right? I'll defend tech all day long on that. They're just playing by the rules right now, and that's what that Cody Campbell's frustration seems to be. If you're a school in that position and you're just like, hey, we don't like that you're spending money, we should have less schools spending money like that in this league. That's not the way to do it. And I man, hey men, preach. What do I need to do? I like that has been my frustration with certain schools in this league for a while. Like, guys, you need to you need to figure out the money. Forget about anything else, like, even the criticism toward a Utah, and Utah was singled out in this story. I'm gonna read you another quote from Cody Campbell here in just a moment where he singled out Utah as a school that is trying to spend at that level. Well, they they got the private equity deal that goes up to $500 million, man. I mean, that to me is really forward-thinking and saying we're not gonna just sit idly by and hope that this all works out. We are going to get the money we need right now in the short term to compete enough to make sure that we are in the next iteration of whatever this is gonna be, Super League or whatever it is. We want to do everything we can to better our future. That's what tech is doing. Utah is clearly doing that. I mean, Kansas found a $300 million donation from David Booth. There are schools in the league that are trying to do that. Uh, BYU, obviously, is a place that has stepped up its resources considerably. You're gonna hear Brian Santiago talk about that on the channel pretty soon, the uh BYU athletic director. I I am with Cody Campbell and Texas Tech on this all the way. Go find ways to make money, go find ways to get more money, get creative. It should be everybody pounding the pavement to do this and try and do what tech is doing. It may not be quite as easy for you if you don't have the amount of billionaires that are in the Matador Club as what Texas Tech has, but this should be motivated. Oklahoma State, go to my Twitter account at JL Kurtz. You can see a clip that I retweeted from the College Football Inquirer where they talked about Oklahoma State, how they have really raised the financial commitment there at that school. Like there are places in the Big 12 making a legitimate effort. Everybody needs to get on board with that, and I'm with Texas Tech. That's they want to be in a league where more people are doing that. So this part, I am on board with them all the way. It says in the article, Cody Campbell even suggested a floor, a spending floor to require a certain level of investment from Big 12 schools. Maguire, Joey Maguire, says those investing at a high level within the conference include BYU in Utah. And he also said you can't say Houston isn't. They signed the freshman five-star quarterback, Keyshawn Henderson, the top-rated quarterback in the 2026 class. And then if that was us, it would be that he came to tech for the money, which he's right. That that's all anybody would say, which would be unfair. Um, but that that's very true. Houston, now we know they mean Kelvin Sampson's not been shy about some of the financial realities and issues at Houston. Uh, but kudos to them for doing that. They are they recruited in the portal at a high level this past year. Big toll schools are stepping up. Everybody needs to. I get that frustration from tech there. I like a lot of what is in this article. I like that they're trying to squash the beef. I like that Texas Tech is making the point like we need more of a commitment from everybody across this league right now to spend financially at a level that is going to keep us more and more competitive. I like all of that. I don't really like that the Soresby story is going to continue, especially at potentially Cincinnati's expense, but I completely understand why that has to happen because I think those questions do need to be asked. That's where we're at with this story that just won't die in the Big 12 at the end of day two of Big 12 media days. Look, that is far from the only thing that happened here today. Bunch of stuff going on, as you can see. I got my monster gear here. Look, I'm being a good company man for the league. Monster Energy. I know some of you are not real happy and thrilled with that, but um, I'm gonna embrace the free stuff. All right, there's like a koozie in a bag here. So shout out to Monster, Monster Energy Big 12. You ready for some monster moments? Unopen for business as we move forward, people. Please do subscribe to the channel. I appreciate you all. Continue to watch. I got a bunch of content that's going to come your way. Recorded interviews. I talked to Brent Brennan today. Bunch of K State stuff coming up on the Three Mont Podcast. Bear Bachmeyer, Kalani Zataki. Uh, I think the Willie Fritz video is already live. So there's a lot of really good content that you're gonna get out of this. So stay tuned. I can't wait to get back home and talk to you about it even more. Uh, and I will see you guys later.