Texas Tech’s Brendan Sorsby controversy has now spilled into a much bigger arena, and the timing is hard to ignore.
A Texas Tribune report says Texas Tech Board of Regents Chairman Cody Campbell gave $274,300 on June 10 to a fundraising committee backing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign. One day later, Paxton’s office fired off a letter to the Big 12 Conference defending Texas Tech’s handling of the Sorsby situation.
In that June 11 letter, Paxton warned the Big 12 that punishing Texas Tech for allowing Sorsby to keep participating could be unlawful and might leave the conference on the hook for more than $200 million in damages. His office said it stepped in after learning conference officials and member schools were weighing penalties against Texas Tech in the dispute.
Campbell has been one of Sorsby’s loudest backers from the start. The former Texas Tech offensive lineman and prominent Red Raiders booster has repeatedly stood up for the quarterback, calling him a student-athlete dealing with a gambling addiction and framing the case as part of bigger problems in college athletics.
The controversy around Sorsby grew into a national story after court documents showed he had placed at least $90,000 in sports wagers while attending multiple schools. The NCAA declared him ineligible after determining he bet on games involving his own team while at Indiana and used third parties to place wagers in states where sports betting was legal. Texas Tech moved quickly to challenge that ruling and push for his reinstatement.
A temporary injunction kept Sorsby in the fight for eligibility, but the case escalated again when the Big 12 sued Paxton, Texas Tech and several university officials. The conference said it had the authority to enforce its own rules and protect the integrity of college athletics.
Campbell later announced in June that Sorsby would not be part of the Texas Tech football team this fall. Still, the sequence of events - Campbell’s large donation to Paxton, then Paxton’s intervention on Texas Tech’s behalf - is bound to keep the political and legal fallout swirling around one of college football’s most explosive scandals.
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