The Big 12 has started down the legal path to potentially sanction Texas Tech over its intention to play quarterback Brendan Sorsby.
On Monday, the conference filed a 47-page complaint against Texas Tech, the Texas attorney general, the system’s chancellor, the school president and athletic director in seeking declaratory judgement and a preliminary injunction to enable it to enforce its bylaws.
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In this landmark case — a league filing legally against one of its members — the Big 12 is asking a federal court to bar Texas Tech and the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, from preventing the conference from “exercising its right under its bylaws to sanction Texas Tech,” according to the complaint obtained by Yahoo Sports, which was filed in the Northern District of Texas in Dallas.
The league is not seeking damages in the filing and is not challenging a state court ruling deeming Sorsby eligible, but is instead asking a federal judge to permit it to take action against the Red Raiders in light of legal threats made from the Texas attorney general, whose letter to the league last week seems to have triggered the Big 12’s filing. The letter from Paxton’s office demanded that the league refrain from exercising its governance authority, characterizing any sanction as an antitrust violation and threatening joint liability against the conference.
Perhaps most notably, the complaint lays out the conference’s intention to sanction Texas Tech if it were to play Sorsby, who has acknowledged to betting on his own team while a freshman at Indiana, violating one of sports’ most sacred policies.
According to the filing, Big 12 conference officials, university presidents and athletic directors have requested that Tech not play Sorsby, but “TTU has not agreed,” resulting in the conference considering a variety of sanctions. Big 12 presidents and chancellors are scheduled to meet later Monday afternoon, though a decision on sanctions is not necessarily expected then.
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“If a vote were to occur however,” the complaint says, “some of the potential sanctions the Board could consider under the bylaws include monetary sanctions and/or a ban on competing in the Big 12 Championship Game.”
There is “considerable concern” within the Big 12 that the league will incur “reputational harm and irreparable damage to public and member trust in the integrity of league compensations” if Sorsby were to play and is concerned that the Red Raiders would “take a spot” from another school in the league championship game “with a player that has acted contrary” to conference values.
“In an industry that rarely agrees on anything, there is finally an issue that everyone seems to agree on (other than TTU and the Attorney General): universities should not field players who have bet on their own team’s games in college athletics,” the Big 12 writes in the filing.
The league is asking a federal judge to grant an injunction to allow it to exercise its “First Amendment” rights to invoke its authority under its bylaws, dismiss Paxton’s claims that any sanction is an antitrust violation and grant it the right to penalize a member school for violating the dormant Commerce Clause, which prevents state governments from enacting laws that impact competition or commence across a variety of states.
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“The threat that gambling poses to the integrity of athletic competition has been understood — and has been borne out by scandal — for over a century,” the complaint reads. “That history informs the Conference’s values and governance practices and explains why these values are non-negotiable.”
The complaint lists as defendants Paxton, Texas Tech University, Texas Tech University System, chancellor Brandon Creighton, president Lawrence Schovanec and athletic director Kirby Hocutt.
When reached on Monday, Big 12 officials declined to comment on the filing.
The Sorsby case has gripped college athletics.
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A Texas court judge’s decision last Monday to prohibit the NCAA from enforcing its rule to permanently ban Sorsby from playing college football sent shockwaves through the college community, with one Big 12 athletic director even calling it “total f***ing bulls***” and at least two schools boycotting playing Tech in future competitions.
The NCAA denied Sorsby’s request to have his eligibility reinstated after he acknowledged wagering on his own team. In all, Sorsby acknowledged to making at least $90,000 from thousands of impermissible wagers during his college career, which spanned from Indiana to Cincinnati to, now, Texas Tech, which signed him to a one-year contract believed to be worth at least $4 million annually.
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Even after enrolling at Tech, Sorsby admitted to sending about $5,000 to another person to place bets on his behalf. Upon the NCAA starting an investigation into the quarterback this spring, Sorsby enrolled in treatment for sports gambling addiction and anxiety.
After news emerged that the Big 12 was considering sanctioning Tech, Paxton’s office sent a letter to the league Thursday.
“The Big 12 is concerned with TTU’s stated plans — communicated by TTU to the Conference and now backed by independent threats from the Attorney General — to field a student-athlete in Conference competitions despite admitted wagering conduct that is both illegal and in direct conflict with the ethical standards and public trust on which Big 12 competition depends,” the complaint says.
“The Big 12 and its Member Institutions (apparently save TTU) have no interest in being required to endorse or even appearing to endorse unethical and indeed unlawful conduct that strikes at the heart of athletic integrity,” the suit reads.
