Texas judge clears gambling QB to play and the NCAA can’t stop it
A Texas judge just handed college athletics one of its messiest rulings in years.
The fallout isn’t going away anytime soon. For years I’ve heard it’s popular among college students and players, but now you wonder if coaches are even going to want to bring up the whole subject.
Retired Tarrant County Judge Ken Curry granted Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby a preliminary injunction Monday that blocks the NCAA from enforcing its punishment against him.
That means Sorsby’s back on the field this fall, even after the NCAA stripped his eligibility for placing roughly $90,000 in bets on professional and college sports over four years.
That’s not a typo. Ninety thousand dollars.
NEWS: A judge in district court in Lubbock County, Texas, has granted the injunction requested by Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby. He’s set to be eligible for the 2026 season. pic.twitter.com/31IjwqyxaM
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) June 8, 2026
Curry ruled that Sorsby’s legal team demonstrated he’d suffer a “probable, imminent and irreparable injury” if he couldn’t play for the Red Raiders in 2026.
The injunction takes effect immediately and stays in place until a final judgment or until the court says otherwise. That will be interesting to see.
So will how each individual state handles things. For a federal government trying to sprint as far away as possible from anything having to do with college sports, it’s one other thing to avoid. We’ll get into that a little later.
Somebody, somewhere, will challenge it in any state where it comes up.
Sorsby won’t escape completely clean. He’ll sit out Texas Tech’s first two games against Abilene Christian and Oregon State, a penalty his own attorneys proposed. He returns for the Big 12 opener September 18 against Houston.
The Brendan Sorsby case took a turn on Monday when a judge ruled the Texas Tech QB will be allowed to play this coming season — the ESPN college football analyst explained what it all means: pic.twitter.com/MItxKe7SvZ
— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) June 8, 2026
Gambling details are hard to ignore
The facts of this case are what make the ruling so jarring. Sorsby admitted to placing thousands of bets while an active college athlete.
Court filings show he sent money through family members and friends to place wagers on his behalf. Among those bets were at least 40 involving Indiana football — including player props — while he was enrolled there as a freshman, even though he wasn’t in the playing rotation at the time.
His attorneys argued the case on breach of contract, breach of duty of good faith and breach of fiduciary duty grounds against the NCAA.
Curry, who was assigned after a Texas Tech alumnus judge recused himself, agreed they’d shown probable grounds for relief.
The NCAA had already denied an eligibility appeal that Texas Tech filed on Sorsby’s behalf through its own internal process. The court order made all of that moot.
Sorsby issued a statement after the ruling.
“I’m very grateful for the endless support I have received throughout this entire process,” he said. “I am also grateful for the chance to rejoin my teammates. This opportunity comes with the responsibility to remain focused on my personal growth, the ability to learn from this experience, and to be able to use my situation to help others going forward.”
Brett Yormark has yet to weigh in on the Brendan Sorsby injunction…why exactly is that? pic.twitter.com/O86BB6M9q1
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) June 8, 2026
What this means for NCAA going forward
Here’s where things get complicated for everyone in college athletics.
The ruling isn’t legal precedent. It applies only to Lubbock County in Texas and doesn’t bind courts anywhere else.
A judge in a different state reviewing a similar case could absolutely rule the other way and side with the NCAA. That’s the nature of a preliminary injunction. It’s a non-final order, and the NCAA is expected to appeal.
Still, that doesn’t mean the damage is minimal.
The NCAA has watched courts chip away at its enforcement authority for years, and this is another crack in the foundation. The organization was already counting on Congress to help shore up its ability to enforce gambling rules.
Monday’s ruling made that argument louder.
NCAA president Charlie Baker didn’t mince words.
“There is no better example of why targeted intervention from Congress is necessary,” Baker said. “When you have schools and deep-pocketed supporters willing to look the other way on the glaring integrity threat of betting on your own team and judges whose rulings effectively strip away our ability to stop them — only Congress can equip the NCAA to apply this common sense rule to everyone fairly and consistently.”
Baker specifically pointed to the Protect College Sports Act as the mechanism that would give the organization the teeth it needs to enforce gambling restrictions uniformly.
The bigger picture
Sorsby hired Jeffrey Kessler, one of the most accomplished sports litigators in the country, to fight his case.
Kessler secured a unanimous Supreme Court victory in NCAA v. Alston and played a central role in the House settlement. His track record against the NCAA speaks for itself, and it continued Monday.
But winning in court and winning the argument aren’t always the same thing. Sorsby admitted to the gambling, acknowledged an addiction and placed bets involving his own team.
The NCAA’s position on that is straightforward. It’s a direct threat to the integrity of competition. The whole issue is why a group of players are not in the Hall of Fame for various sports and banned from the game completely.
The Sorsby ruling doesn’t fix any of that.
It just proves that without congressional action or a more stable legal framework, the NCAA’s ability to enforce its own rules depends heavily on which courthouse you walk into.
That’s a problem college sports can’t afford to leave unresolved.
But it may be completely out of their hands.
James Stewart commits to Razorbacks land 14th pledge for 2027 class
Three-star defensive lineman James Stewart made it official Monday morning, picking the Razorbacks over a handful of other programs and giving Arkansas its 14th verbal commitment in the class of 2027.
Stewart, who plays at Riverdale High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., posted his decision on his X account.
Multiple media outlets in Arkansas have also reported the news.
The 6-foot-1, 285-pound lineman has an 87 grade from 247Sports and ranks 109th among interior defensive linemen nationally in the 2027 class.
Before landing on Arkansas, Stewart had been weighing offers from Illinois and Memphis as his other top options.
Boston College, Maryland, Colorado, Tulane and several others had also extended offers to the Tennessee prospect.
The decision came about a week after Stewart wrapped up an official visit to Fayetteville that ran May 29-31.
He told Daniel Fair at HawgBeat.com that Fayetteville felt more like home than he’d expected with the city, the environment and the comfort he felt with the coaching staff all played into his choice.
His comfort with defensive line coach Landius Wilkerson was a major factor.
Stewart told Fair that Wilkerson kept things completely honest with him from start to finish, and that kind of straight talk meant a great deal throughout his recruitment.
Wilkerson had also recruited Stewart during a previous stint at Tulane, so the two had already built a relationship before the Arkansas offer came.
Danny West at HawgSports.com reported that Stewart had been weighing a potential visit to Boston College this week before ultimately going ahead with his pledge to the Hogs.
West also said the 2027 class now stands at 14 commitments for Ryan Silverfield’s program after a busy stretch that produced four new pledges in a 24-hour window.
Stewart told West he came into his visit expecting something more rural and was caught off guard by what he found in Northwest Arkansas.
He said the program backs up what it tells recruits rather than just saying the right things, and that genuineness made a difference.
He ranks 36th among all 2027 prospects in Tennessee regardless of position, per 247Sports.
The 2027 Arkansas class now includes commitments at multiple positions across the offensive and defensive lines, linebacker, running back, wide receiver, cornerback, tight end and specialist spots.
Stewart joins fellow defensive linemen Eli Thornton of Valley View and Keith Richmond of Clay-Chalkville (Ala.) in the group.
Three-star tight end Keenan commits to Razorbacks 2027 class
There’s plenty of chatter around the SEC right now about star ratings during a time of big recruiting weekends.
Every few days another program posts a flashy commit with four or five stars next to the name, and the social media celebration that follows could fill a stadium.
Meanwhile, Arkansas has picked up its 11th pledge for the 2027 class on Sunday from a three-star tight end who walked off an official visit and didn’t look back.
That’s not necessarily a knock on anything. It might be a warning of what to expect.
It’s just the reality of where the Razorbacks are right now in Ryan Silverfield’s first full recruiting cycle.
Parker Keenan, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound tight end out of Kirkwood in Clarksville, Tennessee, made his pledge public Sunday after a 48-hour official visit to Fayetteville.
He came in ranked as an 86 on the 247Sports scale, listed as the nation’s 67th-best tight end and the 46th-ranked player in his home state of Tennessee.
Those numbers won’t put anybody on a top-10 class list. But he did choose the Hogs over a solid group of schools, including Toledo and Cincinnati, while also holding prior offers from Florida State, Colorado and Memphis.
The timeline on this one moved fast. Tight end coach Morgan Turner extended Keenan an offer on May 26 and had him penciled in for an official visit the following weekend.
He’d actually had a trip to Colorado on the calendar, bumped it in favor of Fayetteville and made his decision before the weekend was over. Arkansas hosted around 14 prospects over the visit period, and Keenan was among the ones who left with his mind made up.
“Coach Turner and I want to be a part of what Coach Silverfield has going on over here,” Keenan told Danny West of HawgSports.com. “He had super successful, like, career at Memphis. He’s coming over here to turn this program around, make it go back to, like, all its core in the SEC. And I want to be part of that. I love the players. I love the people.”
There’s a thread worth pulling on there. He’s not talking about championships yet. He’s talking about a vision, a belief in a coach and a connection to the people around the program.
That’s what a three-star recruit sounds like when he’s bought in, and sometimes those are the guys who end up being exactly what a program needs them to be.
Stars don’t sign contracts
The star rating conversation never gets old in college football. Fans use it as a measuring stick, coaches are judged by it and recruiting services make their living off of it.
There’s a reason it matters. Historically speaking, programs that stockpile four and five-star talent tend to compete for titles. That’s not a coincidence.
You don’t often see a team win a national championship without a roster full of highly-rated recruits.
But there’s another side to that truth. A three-star grade is assigned before a player has set foot on a college practice field.
It doesn’t account for what happens when a guy lands in the right system, develops under the right coach and finds a role built for his skill set. They days that plan usually wins championships for another coach.
Plenty of programs have burned through top-100 classes and finished 7-5. And plenty of three-star guys have made NFL rosters.
The Razorbacks aren’t out here making that argument as a philosophy.
They’d probably love to sign more highly-rated prospects and that’s the direction Silverfield is trying to move the program. The 2027 class does include four-star interior lineman Odaefe Oruru out of Jenks, Oklahoma.
But the bulk of what’s been assembled so far reflects a program climbing back rather than one already at the top of the mountain. How quickly that translates to wins on the field will determine how long Silverfield hangs around.
Keenan joins a class that includes in-state running back Jeremiah Dent out of Marion, wide receiver Darion Moseley from Thompson, Alabama, cornerback Zy’Corius Huzzie from LaGrange, Georgia and linebacker Will Caston from Fayetteville, among others.
That’s a geographically diverse group that tells you the staff isn’t limiting itself to Arkansas borders, even if building an in-state base remains part of the plan.
What Keenan fills and what it means
The timing of this commitment matters when you consider what the Razorbacks recently lost at the position.
A prior tight end pledge in the 2027 cycle had decommitted, leaving a hole that Turner moved quickly to fill. Within two weeks of offering Keenan, Arkansas had a replacement committed and an official visit in the books.
That kind of efficiency in the recruiting process is worth noting.
Getting a prospect to campus, selling him on the program and closing the deal in one visit weekend isn’t something that happens by accident.
Keenan had other options and chose to push up his trip to Fayetteville rather than see Colorado and Deion Sanders first..
As a junior at Kirkwood, Keenan caught 24 passes for 408 yards and four touchdowns across 12 games. For a tight end, that’s a meaningful target share that suggests he was a trusted part of the offense rather than a red-zone-only option.
At 6-5 and 230 pounds, he’s got the frame to fill out further before he arrives in Fayetteville.
The SEC’s star-rating leaders will keep posting their commitments and counting the blue chips. That’s how the game works at Alabama, Georgia and Texas.
Arkansas isn’t there yet, and anyone who tells you star ratings don’t matter hasn’t watched enough championship Januarys to know the difference.
What the Hogs can do right now is build smart, develop well and compete for every prospect they target.
Keenan chose Fayetteville over programs with deeper recent résumés.
That’s a recruiting win regardless of what number appears next to his name on a scouting service website.
Arkansas lands Belmont lefty Ridge Harvey from transfer portal
Left-handed pitcher Ridge Harvey made his decision public on X Saturday, announcing he’s headed to Fayetteville after one season at Belmont.
The Razorbacks locked up the first four-year transfer of their current portal cycle, and Harvey’s profile fits exactly the kind of arm Dave Van Horn’s staff has been looking for.
He was the second pitcher on Saturday for Van Horn’s staff after Lance Armstrong from Johnson County Community College in Kansas.
Harvey is a 6-foot-1, 185-pound southpaw from Collierville, Tennessee, in the greater Memphis area.
GO HOGS! 📍Fayetteville, AR#committed #woopig #omahogs@RazorbackBSB pic.twitter.com/QOWerWxchE
— Ridge Harvey (@RidgeHarvey1) June 6, 2026
Before his college career, he won a regional and district championship at Collierville High School and earned Co-Pitcher of the Year honors for his region.
That prep background translated quickly when he stepped onto a college mound.
In his freshman season with the Bruins, Harvey turned in 50 strikeouts against just 15 walks in 46 2/3 innings, posting a 4.24 ERA.
His Fielding Independent Pitching mark of 3.04 ranked in the 95th percentile nationally, a figure that suggests his underlying stuff is better than his ERA reflects.
Harvey’s fastball sits in the 88-91 mph range and has touched 92.
His primary secondary offering is a sweeper that generates plenty of swing-and-misses, giving him a reliable weapon against right-handed hitters as a lefty.
The Missouri Valley Conference recognized his debut season with an All-Freshman team selection, and he also earned All-Conference honors.
He heads to Arkansas with three years of eligibility remaining, giving the Hogs a long runway to develop what’s already a polished pitching package.
His best single outing of the season came April 18 against Evansville, when he threw seven shutout innings with 13 strikeouts and no walks.
That performance earned him Missouri Valley pitcher of the week recognition. He also had four other appearances in which he punched out at least five batters.
Harvey wasn’t a one-start wonder, either. He showed the ability to both miss bats and limit free passes throughout the year, which is exactly the combination Arkansas covets at the front end of a pitching staff.
Portal busy week for Arkansas pitching
The commitment is the first transfer portal addition of the current cycle for the Razorbacks, though Arkansas has also brought in JUCO left-hander Micah Henson with Alexander this week.
That makes Harvey the third overall pitching addition for the Hogs in a matter of days as the program reshapes its staff heading into 2027.
The Razorbacks’ offseason need for pitching has been clear since the season ended.
Arkansas turned its attention to the portal quickly after the Lawrence Regional exit, and Harvey’s commitment Saturday shows the staff is moving with urgency to reload the rotation.
With three years left in Fayetteville, Harvey gives the Rebs a left-handed arm with proven strikeout ability and a stat profile that points toward continued growth.
He will be one of the more polished freshman pitchers to come out of the Missouri Valley this past season.
Arkansas lands JUCO national champion pitcher Lance Alexander
The Arkansas Razorbacks didn’t wait long to get back to business after their baseball season ended.
Multiple media reports are confirming that Lance Alexander, a right-handed pitcher from Johnson County Community College in Kansas, has announced his commitment to Arkansas on Saturday via social media, giving the Hogs a significant addition to their pitching pipeline.
What makes this signing stand out isn’t just Alexander’s numbers, it’s where he came from. According to multiple reports, Alexander was a key figure in Johnson County’s run to a JUCO national championship, starting the title game and earning the win against Blinn CC.
Proverbs 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established” #wps #committed pic.twitter.com/nxgjJ9IpO6
— Lance Alexander (@Lance_Alexande) June 6, 2026
He went 6.2 innings in that championship contest, allowing four runs on seven hits while striking out eight. That’s the kind of winning pedigree pitching coach Matt Hobbs is looking to bring into the program.
Alexander will arrive in Fayetteville as a sophomore in 2027. He spent his freshman year at JCCC putting up numbers worth noting with 67 strikeouts across 50.1 innings with a 4.47 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP in 19 appearances and seven starts. He also walked 19 batters on the season.
At 6-foot, 185 pounds, Alexander isn’t a physically imposing frame, but reports indicate he’s got room to develop.
His fastball sits in the 91-93 mph range and he complements it with a changeup and slider. There’s upside here, and the Razorbacks are betting on it.
Alexander prepped at Olathe Northwest High School in Olathe, Kansas, where he earned two Kansas 6A All-State selections and was named the 6A Pitcher of the Year as a junior.
That same season, he finished 6-2 with a 1.41 ERA and 72 strikeouts. He followed that up his senior year with a 6-3 record, a 2.14 ERA and 64 more punchouts.
By the time he left high school, he’d gone 15-6 with 156 strikeouts over 138.2 innings.
Perfect Game ranked him the No. 433 prospect on its national Top-500 list for 2026 and No. 31 overall in the state of Kansas. Prep Baseball Report graded him the No. 9 right-handed pitcher in the state.
He’s also from Lenexa, Kansas, which reports note makes him the latest in a well-established pipeline of Kansas City-area players making their way to the Hill.
Alexander earned the JCCC Student-Athlete Academic Award during his freshman year, adding a classroom track record to his on-mound résumé. He’s majoring in biology.
Alexander is the second JUCO arm to pledge to the Hogs in a span of three days, following left-hander Micah Henson, who announced Thursday that he’d be coming to Fayetteville after his sophomore season at Crowder College.
The back-to-back additions signal an aggressive approach from Dave Van Horn’s staff as they work to reload the pitching staff this offseason.
Arkansas basketball fills out December with Central Michigan home date
John Calipari doesn’t do boring schedules.
He made that clear early in the offseason when he locked in a Thanksgiving neutral-site game against Michigan State, a road trip to Chapel Hill for the SEC/ACC Challenge and a Sweet 16 rematch with Arizona in Phoenix.
Those are the kinds of games that move the needle in August when there’s nothing else going on, and Calipari knew exactly what he was doing when he put them on the calendar.
But a schedule still needs its working parts.
You can’t play three games and call it a non-conference schedule, and apparently that’s where Central Michigan comes in.
The Razorbacks will host the Chippewas at Bud Walton Arena on Dec. 22, according to a report from Rocco Miller of Bracketeer.org.
It’s not a glamour game, and it’s not meant to be.
It’s the kind of home date that keeps the schedule moving and gives Arkansas a tuneup three days after a neutral-site battle with a Pac-12 powerhouse before the SEC grind begins.
It’s also a rare one from a historical standpoint. This’ll be just the second time these two programs have shared the court.
The only previous meeting came on Dec. 5, 2006, when Central Michigan traveled to Fayetteville and went home with a 75-59 loss.
Charles Thomas led the way that afternoon with 14 points and Sonny Weems added 13.
That was nearly 20 years ago, which tells you everything you need to know about how infrequently these two programs cross paths.
Central Michigan arrives in Fayetteville under second-year head coach Andy Bronkema, who came to the program after 12 years at Division II Ferris State.
His first season with the Chippewas wasn’t what anyone had in mind, going 10-21 overall and finished 6-12 in MAC play, good for 10th in the conference.
There’s room to grow, but this shouldn’t be a team that’s going to give Arkansas fits in late December.
That’s fine. Not every game has to be a statement.
After consecutive neutral-site games against Michigan State and Arizona sandwiching a road trip to one of college basketball’s most storied venues, a home date against a rebuilding MAC program is exactly what the doctor ordered.
The SEC schedule is another matter entirely.
The conference controls that calendar, and it’ll be released whenever the league office gets around to it.
For now, though, the Razorbacks are doing what programs do during the slow stretch of summer by adding pieces, keeping fans engaged and reminding everyone that basketball season is coming whether the full schedule is posted yet or not.
Photos of Calipari and this basketball camp and that one all over the country doesn’t do much that add to the count in a slow news time that spikes with other sports from time to time.
For now, here’s where the Arkansas non-conference slate stands heading into 2026-27:
- Nov. 26 – vs. Michigan State (neutral site, Thanksgiving)
- Dec. 1 – at North Carolina (SEC/ACC Challenge)
- Dec. 19 – vs. Arizona (neutral site, Phoenix)
- Dec. 22 – vs. Central Michigan (Bud Walton Arena)
Razorbacks Marin and Lopez both survive cut at U.S. Women’s Open
Two players with Arkansas ties are in contention at one of golf’s biggest events, and the Razorbacks couldn’t have asked for a better showing through the first two rounds.
Maria Jose Marin and former Hog Gaby Lopez both made the 36-hole cut at the 81st U.S. Women’s Open, which is being held at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., on a par-71 layout.
The cut line came in at 4-over par, and both players finished well clear of it.
Lopez enters the weekend tied for third at 3-under, just one shot behind co-leaders Alison Lee and Ruoning Yin.
Marin sits tied for 22nd at 1-over, making her one of five amateurs to survive the cut in a field that started with 28.
Lopez stays in the hunt
The former Arkansas All-American got off to a fast start in round one, making five birdies on her first nine holes after teeing off from the 10th.
Things tightened up on the way in, though, as she bogeyed three of her final eight holes.
She came back Friday in a similar position — one shot off the lead and tied for second — and kept pace right away with a birdie on No. 1.
Lopez parred the remaining eight holes on the front nine before running into trouble on the back.
Bogeys on two of the three holes in the stretch from Nos. 13 through 15 threatened to push her down the board, but she answered with a 12-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th to get back to even for the day.
Lopez closed out the second round with a 71 and will tee off Saturday alongside Sei Young Kim at 4:15 p.m.
Marin holds her own as an amateur
Marin arrived at Riviera with momentum, having posted a top-5 finish at the NCAA Championship in Carlsbad just the week before.
She picked up where she left off in the opening round, making birdies on Nos. 5 and 6 after sticking both approach shots to six feet.
A three-putt bogey on the following hole was the only real slip, and she steadied herself over the final 11 holes with clutch up-and-down pars on Nos. 9, 12 and 13.
The junior wrapped up Thursday at 1-under 70 and was tied for 13th.
Friday was a rougher ride. She teed off from No. 10 and opened with a birdie on 11 followed by a bogey on 12.
She got to 2-under for the tournament with a five-foot birdie putt on the par-5 17th, moving inside the top 10.
A seven-footer for par on 18 lipped out, but she bounced back immediately with a birdie on No. 1 after her eagle attempt stopped three feet short and she finished the tap-in.
Marin gave shots back on No. 3 and headed to her final hole — the par-4 ninth — at even for the tournament.
Her approach from the right edge of the fairway came up well short of the green, and an 11-foot par putt didn’t fall. She finished the round with a 2-over 73 for a two-day total of 1-over.
Despite the late stumble, Marin stands tied with world No. 1 Kiara Romero and Canada’s Aphrodite Deng as the low amateurs in the field.
It’s also worth noting that she’s now made the cut in each of her three major appearances, including the 80th U.S. Women’s Open and the 2025 Amundi Evian Championship.
The Arkansas junior tees off in the third round at 1:55 p.m. alongside Shuri Sakuma.
Television coverage Saturday runs on USA Network from 5-7 p.m. before shifting to NBC from 7-10 p.m.
