Brendan Sorsby is the main character in the gambling saga swallowing up the news cycle. Probably no one heard of him until this past season, when he was the starting quarterback for the University of Cincinnati. In 2025, Sorsby was a Davey O’Brien semifinalist.
He also bet on games, though he has said he did not engage in point shaving. According to reports, Sorsby, who played his first two collegiate seasons at Indiana University, placed over $90,000 in bets using friends’ and family’s gambling accounts on online betting apps.
That’s a no-no, according to the NCAA, but it didn’t stop Sorsby, who entered a rehabilitation program for sports gambling addiction on April 27. He was later ruled ineligible to play for Texas Tech in 2026, but a Texas judge temporarily restored his eligibility three days later.
Sorsby was to be suspended for the Red Raiders’ first two games of the season, and opponents were afoot to remove Texas Tech from their schedules. The reason the above two points are in the past tense is that Sorsby declared for the National Football League’s supplemental draft.
Pardon me while I yawn.
If Sorsby’s sins are so egregious, why doesn’t the NCAA rescind its association with something that is considered a “vice” for a reason? There’s a reason there are visible disclaimers during commercials promoting sports betting. “Got a gambling problem?”
It goes deeper – all the way to the core of the sports entertainment business. The signs are all in front of us. College and professional sports are sponsored by corporations, which spend millions of dollars to show their products on national television. And money talks. It’s the reason there are commercial breaks during games. It’s the reason your brain is like eggs on a skillet after spending three hours staring at signals emitting into your brain from a black box.
Not many years ago, sports betting crossed the threshold from being illegal and immoral to a perfectly legal activity. Of course, gambling can be as addictive as drugs. It destroys lives and families. As someone who lived close to the casinos of Atlantic City, I’ve seen firsthand what gambling addiction is like.
Yet, the NCAA, as well as professional sports associations, made the quantum leap to form partnerships with sports betting entities. Instead of distancing themselves from the vice industry, they embrace it like it’s an innocent pastime, when, in reality, it’s like dabbling in Ouija boards. Indeed, all the problems occurring with regard to sports betting stem from the powers that be and their association with gambling. The NCAA committed the “original sin.” It can’t, therefore, look aghast when they see its athletes (and probably coaches) partake of the forbidden fruit.
While Sorsby’s actions reflect a weakness in judgment, the true villain is the institution that is supposed to look out for the welfare of its players, coaches and fanbases.
The NCAA, the last bastion of amateur athletics, sold its soul. The corporate barbarians have laid siege to college sports, leaving a trail of betrayal and moral outrage. Where is the anger against the NCAA, the guardians of college athletics and the integrity of college sports, who convince naïve followers to believe that what they are watching is fair play and true competition?
The existence of sports betting, with many wagers placed during games, removes some of the objectivity from how fans view contests. Every unlikely outcome invites speculation, and that’s one of the costs of intertwining gambling with sports.
Until then, read a book. Take a hike. Make some lemon balm syrup. And when it comes to the overblown perception we have of professional and college sports, chalk it up to experience and focus on the things that matter.
