Brendan Sorsby confessed to gambling throughout all three of his college stops from Indiana to Cincinnati and even with a newly inflated bank account from NIL earnings when he arrived at Texas Tech via the transfer portal earlier this year.
Sorsby, banned by the NCAA for sports-betting violations, shared the details of his habit in an interview that will be part of the new Paramount+ four-part documentary series “The Program: Texas Tech,” debuting Friday.
“I have a ton of remorse and a ton of regret for the things that I’ve done in the past,” Sorsby said in the interview. “Just for my coaches and teammates and those guys, and then all the backlash that we faced — they’re having to face all the scrutiny and backlash as well.”
Considered one of the top transfers in the portal in January, Sorsby committed to Texas Tech and was with the team in the spring. But his participation was short-lived as courtroom strategy replaced football focus.
The documentary reveals behind-the-scenes reaction and string-pulling by the Texas Tech administration and coaching staff working through the roller coaster of reality surrounding Sorsby’s eligibility. All but resigned to not having Sorsby on the roster, head coach Joey McGuire and most of the team reacted with joy and celebration when Sorsby learned June 8 there was a court order clearing him to play in 2026.
Emotions turned quickly. On June 15, Sorsby was informed that a Big 12 lawsuit against Texas Tech as deemed too great a hurdle for the university to overcome in a meeting with McGuire.
“Once that finally came out, I was on the phone with my parents and agent and I’m sitting there bawling my eyes out,” Sorsby said. “In my head, I’m thinking I just threw everything I’ve worked for my entire life out the window, like it’s over. Coach McGuire and me sat down at his office, and there was a lot of tears shed between the both of us.”
Sorsby said he started gambling as a senior in high school and blackjack at the casino turned into a regular habit. He placed at least 40 bets on Indiana football when he was a freshman in 2022 and more than 9,000 wagers — at a cost over $90,000 — on pro and college sports during a four-year stretch.
The NCAA on Wednesday finally ruled it would not punish Cincinnati for Sorsby’s betting activity. His gambling activity while at UC was classified as a Level III violation, which attaches punishment to student-athletes and is viewed as “isolated or limited in scope.”
In the new series, Sorsby details that he was actively betting — but not on Cincinnati — in anything but a limited fashion while he was with the Bearcats.
“I gambled all throughout my time at Indiana, pretty much all throughout my time at Cincinnati,” Sorsby said. “Made some mistakes, though, especially early on betting on my own team, which obviously everybody knows. Whenever I’d gotten to Tech, same deal. Making more money than I ever made in my life, no reason at all to gamble, and yet I still did it.”
Ineligible to play at the college level, Sorsby attempted to reroute directly to the NFL in June but was denied by the league. In its letter to Sorsby denying his petition to enter the supplemental draft, the NFL criticized Sorsby for a lack of personal accountability and challenged his petition for lacking clarity as to “whether, or how, you would adhere to the League’s rules and policies governing the integrity of competition.”
The NFL declined to hold a supplemental draft, ruled Sorsby cannot enter the league this season as a free agent and encouraged him to prepare for possible entry into the 2027 NFL Draft.
–Field Level Media
