The Big 12 Conference has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Tech University, seeking a court ruling that it retains the authority to discipline the school over its decision to field quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who has admitted to wagering on football games while a player at Indiana.
The complaint, filed Sunday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas, names Paxton in his official capacity along with Texas Tech, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Brandon Creighton, university president Lawrence Schovanec and athletic director Kirby Hocutt as defendants. The conference is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief rather than monetary damages, asking the court to confirm that sanctioning Texas Tech under its own bylaws would not violate antitrust law or breach its contract with the school. The Office of the Attorney General’s full warning to the conference is available on its website.
The filing follows a June 8 temporary injunction issued by a Texas state court that bars the NCAA from prohibiting Sorsby from competing for Texas Tech this season, subject to a two-game suspension. Sorsby has acknowledged placing thousands of bets over a four-year period, including wagers placed in 2022 while he was on Indiana’s roster. He has since transferred to Texas Tech.
Paxton Warns Of $200 Million Liability
In a June 11 letter to Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and conference chair Doug Girod, Paxton’s office warned that any sanction against Texas Tech for honoring the injunction would expose the conference and its members to antitrust liability exceeding $200 million, citing potential treble damages, lost football revenue and recruiting harm. The Big 12’s complaint characterizes that position as an attempt to compel the conference’s silence and disputes that disciplining a member institution under its own bylaws constitutes an antitrust violation.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond wrote separately to the conference on June 12 in support of its authority to sanction members, an intervention the Big 12 referenced in its filing. The conference’s bylaws permit a supermajority vote of member institutions to sanction a school for conduct deemed contrary to the conference’s interests, with penalties ranging from fines to exclusion from the Big 12 Championship Game.
The dispute is among the most significant tests yet of a conference’s authority to enforce its own gambling-related conduct rules against a member school, set against the backdrop of state court rulings that have so far favored Sorsby’s eligibility to play.