Mark Blaudschun
By Mark Blaudschun
The key college football story of the off season was the tribulations of journeyman quarterback Brendan Sorsby,
who had taken his considerable skills to the highest bidder, the last stop being Texas Tech, which got a taste
of the playoffs last season and wanted more.
So they out bid everyone for the soon-to-be former Cincinnati QB and eagerly awaited spring drills and then the 2026 season.
One problem.
Sorsby had a problem. He was a gambler, a degenerate gambler if you saw the cloud that swirled when it was announced that he was getting help for addiction to gambling.
Which was bad enough. But Sorsby bet on college football games.
Whoops.
The heat from the firestorm made a Lubbock July night seem cool. Lawsuits were filed, injunctions appeared, courtesy of a friendly Texas judge which allowed Sorsby, following a successful rehab program allowed him to resume his career after a two-game suspension,
Not so fast my friend.
That wasn't going to work because Sorsby crossed the Rubicon. Football players CAN NOT BET on anything involving their sport. Especially now with the NCAA embracing the concert of gambling with the warmth of a long missing relative who has unlimited resources
The once taboo area is now as much a part of culture in football as first downs.
In the middle of all this was highly energetic and wildly successful Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark who had to deal with all of this, holding meeting after meeting, looking for some escape.
There was none.
Even Sorsby saw that, conceding his college football career was over. It was time to prepare for the NFL.
This all developed as the Big 12 was conducting its annual football Media Day earlier this month in Frisco, Texas.
Yormark, whose public comments and availability had been minimal during the past few months, chose to ignore the elephant in the room.
Not the time, nor the place, said the usually perceptive commissioner.
After all, it was only MEDIA DAY
Really.
The issue is gambling and yes, point spreads and terms such as over and under (total points in a game).
The issue will not go away. It is part of the fabric of sports now and that includes college football and basketball.
Sorsby could not play another down as a college player.
If he did, each play would have been analyzed and questioned.
Not the right time?
It was MEDIA DAY at a time when the subject was hotter than a pepper sprout as Johnny Cash told us.
Maybe Thanksgiving would have been better?
Pass the stuffing please and why was that touchdown scored in the last minute of a game in which the outcome had long been decided
Or the holidays as gifts were being handed out and a key turnover changed not only the outcome but the point spread.
Yormark chose to ignore the issue rather than talk about it for a few minutes, handling some general questions because litigation is still possible.
He did not.
But the issue will not go away and there will come a time when Yorkmark and everyone else in college athletics will have to deal with gambling as a major issue.
Bet on it.
#30
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