Judge assigned to Brendan Sorsby case vs. NCAA recuses himself - ESPN

The Texas judge initially assigned to Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's eligibility lawsuit against the NCAA has recused himself.

Judge Phillip Hays grew up in Lubbock — where the lawsuit was filed — and earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Texas Tech. Hays recused himself with no explanation in a court filing Wednesday, Bloomberg reported, and the administrative judge who will pick Hays' replacement has no ties to the school.

Sorsby — who has acknowledged wagering on sports, including on his own team his freshman season at Indiana in 2022 — filed for an injunction against the NCAA on Monday that would allow him to play for the Red Raiders this season after he was one of the biggest transfers of the offseason.

The NCAA prohibits student-athletes from betting on any NCAA-sanctioned sport, professional or collegiate. Penalties can include permanent ineligibility, especially in cases in which athletes wagered on their own team or manipulated their performance.

In the lawsuit, Sorsby acknowledged that in his first year at Indiana, he wagered between $5 and $50 on the Hoosiers football team to win and made prop bets on teammates to exceed statistical predictions. He said he did not bet on the one game in which he played.

Sorsby said he never bet on a game involving Cincinnati after he transferred there in 2024, but he continued to be out of control, even placing wagers on Turkish basketball and Romanian soccer games.

Sorsby, who entered residential treatment for a gambling addiction three weeks ago, contends there is hypocrisy in the NCAA's harsh discipline for gambling violations at a time it has a partnership with Genius Sports, the exclusive distributor of official NCAA data feeds to authorized sportsbooks.