Utah AG, Gov. Cox back Big 12 in Texas Tech-Brendan Sorsby dispute

SALT LAKE CITY (KSL.com) – Utah officials are the latest state to publicly express support for the Big 12 Conference amid a dispute involving Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby.

On Monday, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown and Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox published a letter addressed to Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark and University of Kansas Chairman Douglas A. Girod, showing their support for the conference.

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown supports the Big 12 Conference in its dispute with Texas Tech

“BYU and Utah deserve honest competition. @govcox and I stand behind the Big 12 and support its right to enforce its own rules,” wrote Utah AG Derek E. Brown on X.

Utah’s Attorney General joins Oklahoma and Kansas Attorney Generals in backing the Big 12 Conference during a dispute over the eligibility of Brendan Sorsby, who placed bets on the University of Indiana football team. At the same time, he was part of the Hoosiers in 2022.

Sorsby received an injunction last week from a Texas judge allowing him to play this season, despite the NCAA suspending his eligibility.

After that injunction, Big 12 athletic directors were looking for ways to avoid playing Texas Tech this season or to have the league sanction Texas Tech.

That led Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to write a letter last week to the Big 12 warning that if the league considered “invoking Bylaw 3.6 of the Big 12’s Bylaws to sanction Texas Tech,” it could expose the league to “substantial liability.”

The Big 12 responded to Attorney General Paxton’s letter, stating, “Our discussion with the full Board will determine our course of action, and all options remain on the table.”

Earlier today, the Big 12 filed a 47-page complaint against Texas Tech and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, seeking an injunction to invoke its conference bylaws.

Utah AG to Big 12: “What happens next matters to both schools and to every honest athlete who competes in this Conference”

“Utah is home to two Big 12 member institutions–Brigham Young University and the University of Utah–and we write because what happens next matters to both schools and to every honest athlete who competes in this Conference,” stated Utah Attorney General Brown in his letter on Monday.

“The Texas Attorney General recently asserted that the Big 12 Conference would violate federal and state antitrust laws by penalizing Texas Tech if the University fails to take appropriate action in response to Brendan Sorsby’s egregious and admitted misconduct. That assertion is incorrect.”

Attorney General Brown later added, “Utah cares deeply about this issue. Utah is one of only two states with a comprehensive and statutory prohibition on gambling.”

“The harm from Texas Tech’s proposed course of action is not merely legal–it is structural. When an athlete wagers on games in which he competes, every play becomes suspect. Fans, players, broadcasters, and schools alike operate on the foundational premise that competition is honest. Every student-athlete in the Big 12–at BYU, the University of Utah, and every other member school–trains, competes, and sacrifices on that premise. Texas Tech’s support of Sorsby’s efforts to avoid what was previously a uniformly accepted consequence of this type of misconduct does not merely bend a rule. It places the integrity of every game he plays in question and, by extension, puts the integrity of the Conference itself at risk. No member institution should be compelled to compete on those terms, and neither should any honest athlete.”

Brendan Sorsby’s status

Sorsby is currently suspended for the first two games of Texas Tech’s football season. Those games are nonconference matchups against Abilene Christian and Oregon State.

Sorsby is cleared to play against Houston in week three, the Red Raiders’ first game in Big 12 Conference play. However, Texas Tech officials have not publicly said whether Sorsby will play in that game since the injunction was issued last week.

Neither BYU nor Utah is scheduled to play Texas Tech in the regular season this fall.