Cincinnati’s $1M Sorsby Lawsuit Hangs Over Texas Tech Showdown

No. 8 Texas Tech will travel to Cincinnati for the first time in school history this weekend, as the Red Raiders attempt to improve to 7–0 overall and 4–0 in Big 12 play. Texas Tech’s quest for consecutive conference titles, in a year where there are currently four Big 12 schools in the top 15, is one storyline for the midseason matchup. An ongoing lawsuit that links Texas Tech and Cincinnati adds another layer. 

In February, Cincinnati filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against former quarterback Brendan Sorsby seeking a $1 million buyout/liquidated damages fee after Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech in January in a reported deal worth around $5 million. Several months later at Big 12 media days, Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield accused Texas Tech of tampering with Sorsby toward the end of the 2025 season. 

Sorsby is not a member of Texas Tech’s football team after being ruled permanently ineligible for placing thousands of bets as a student-athlete in his career, including betting on an Indiana football game while he was redshirting for the Hoosiers in 2022. The 22-year-old quarterback had initially fought to maintain his eligibility, but has since reversed course and is focusing on the 2027 NFL Draft.

Although Sorsby never suited up for the Red Raiders, coach Joey McGuire acknowledged that animosity might still run higher than usual ahead of Saturday’s matchup. 

“I think there probably would be, without a doubt,” McGuire told local reporters this week. “What I’ve told our coaches and our team is to make it about the football. We have too much in front of us. We’re still nowhere close to the team that we can be, and so to focus on anything other than the football and going 1–0 no matter who we’re playing I think would start taking away from what we’re trying to do.”

Both teams pivoted from Sorsby to varying results. Cincinnati, currently 4–2 overall and 1–2 in the Big 12, signed Georgia Southern transfer JC French IV. So far, French has passed for 1,338 yards with nine touchdowns and zero interceptions. He also has six rushing touchdowns. 

Texas Tech has used multiple quarterbacks this season. Will Hammond, last season’s backup, is the team’s leading passer with 1,334 yards with six passing touchdowns and five interceptions. 

The Red Raiders also signed Tommy Castellanos, a former starter at Boston College and Florida State, in August after he received a temporary restraining order from a Kentucky court against the NCAA and was granted eligibility for 2026. On Oct. 2, the Kentucky Court of Appeals dissolved a temporary restraining order allowing a group of class of 2022 athletes a fifth season of eligibility, making him ineligible. On Oct. 16, he was granted another temporary injunction and is now back with Texas Tech. Having appeared in five games, he has recorded 110 total yards (45 passing, 65 rushing) and four total touchdowns (two passing, two rushing).

Sorsby Update 

Sorsby attempted to enter the NFL supplement draft this summer, but the league declined to hold one. Earlier this month, he posted an update via X, showing that he’s actively training for the 2027 NFL Draft. The physical traits are worthy of attention from NFL teams, but the off-field concerns make him a polarizing prospect. 

“Sorsby’s situation is so unique that it really will depend on what happens during the interview process and how teams feel about him,” Dane Brugler, NFL Draft analyst at The Athletic, told Front Office Sports. “Because obviously, it’s not necessarily injury-related or inconsistent play on the field, or it’s something that is really unprecedented.” 

Sorsby, who would’ve been in his final year of eligibility this fall, would have been a highly regarded draft prospect last spring, according to ESPN’s Jordan Reid. He opted to play at Texas Tech for a large NIL (name, image, and likeness) agreement and the chance to improve his stock. 

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound prospect, according to Cincinnati’s 2025 roster, finished his college career with 7,208 passing yards and 82 career touchdowns (60 passing, 22 rushing) over three seasons between Indiana and Cincinnati from 2023–25. 

“He would have been a top-50 guy, I think, without question,” Reid told FOS. “Just because of the requisite arm strength, the way he sees the field, the way he’s able to improvise and make plays. At Texas Tech, you were hoping that was going to take another step as well. So I definitely think he’s somebody that definitely would have been definitely in the Day 2 picture.

“I think the best thing for Brendan is to get an opportunity in an all-star game, just so he can sit down and explain himself to these teams. It’s just taking advantage of playing in those practices, and then playing well in the game as well. But from an NFL team standpoint, it just comes down to how comfortable you feel with the gambling stuff.” 

An added layer to Sorsby’s situation is a current quarterback draft class that’s largely underwhelmed. Draft-eligible prospects such as Arch Manning (Texas), Dante Moore (Oregon), LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina) and more have experienced setbacks this year, and it’s difficult to project which quarterbacks with eligibility remaining will declare for the draft after this season.

In some ways, it’s possible that Sorsby could maintain—or improve—his stock simply due to scarcity. 

“Best case scenario for him is all the things that teams want to hear, he’s able to convey to them,” Brugler said. “Then, yeah, I think that it could potentially help him if a lot of these underclassmen go back and teams that need a quarterback are more open-minded to a player like that, especially because of just the scarcity of quarterbacks in the class. So it’s such a unique situation that I think that by the time we get to January, we have a better feel for what the outlook is going to look like.” 

How Sorsby, Cincinnati and Texas Tech Got Here

In April, Sorsby announced that he would take an “indefinite leave of absence” from the football program to enter a residential treatment facility for gambling addiction. On May 18, he was declared ineligible for the 2026 season and Texas Tech initiated a request for reinstatement by the NCAA. On May 26, that request was denied.

On June 8, Sorsby received a temporary injunction by the 99th District Court in Lubbock County, Texas—the ruling also called for a two-game suspension. One week later, the Big 12 filed a lawsuit against Texas Tech University, the Texas Tech University System, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, with the purpose to enforce its own bylaws and potentially sanction Texas Tech if Sorsby played under the temporary injunction. The scope of the initial injunction reverberated beyond the Big 12, with athletic directors in other conferences calling for their schools to boycott scheduling Texas Tech across all sports. 

Amid public pressure and potential litigation, Texas Tech and Sorsby mutually parted ways shortly after. Sorsby withdrew his suit and declared for the NFL supplemental draft, before turning his attention toward 2027 after the league denied his efforts. The NCAA cleared Cincinnati of any wrongdoing last month, after an inquiry into the program regarding Sorsby’s gambling while at the school was filed this past summer. The Big 12 also dropped its lawsuit against Texas Tech last month, as a spokesperson told FOS that the matter has been resolved internally.

Meanwhile, Cincinnati’s federal breach-of-contract lawsuit against Sorsby remains ongoing, as one of the biggest stories of the college football offseason returns to the spotlight on Saturday.

“We know what we’re going up against,” Satterfield told reporters this week. “It’s a good football team. This is the best defensive line we’ve played. We have to put up a great plan.”