Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - BIG 12 SQUAD - The Brendan Sorsby Gambling SCANDAL | What this means for Kansas

Episode Date: April 30, 2026

Texas Tech faces a major setback as star quarterback Brendan Sorsby is caught in a gambling controversy, casting doubt on his Big 12 future. Will Sorsby suit up this season, or has Tech’s shot at a championship vanished overnight? The squad unpacks how over a thousand wagers—many placed during Sorsby’s stints at Indiana and Cincinnati—sparked a full-blown crisis, igniting questions about competitive integrity, NCAA regulations, and the future of sports betting in college football. The Big 12 Squad debates whether institutional oversight failed, how Texas Tech might fight to keep Sorsby eligible, and if precedent from cases like Iowa State’s Hunter Dekkers offers Tech hope. With questions swirling around legal action, compliance systems, and evolving NCAA rules, the crew asks: Will sports betting become the next normalized aspect of college sports, or are even tougher restrictions inevitable? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is the early bombshell of the offseason. Will arguably the Big 12's top quarterback, Brendan Sorsby, play a single down of football in the Big 12 this year? Let's give you an answer. This is the Locked-on Dose Grande Squad. You're talking ball with the Big 12 squad. From Oklahoma State to Utah, from Kansas State to BYU. From Houston to Texas Tech, it's the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network, bringing you scoops, breakdowns, and the most comprehensive preview of the upcoming Big 12 weekend.

Buckle up, it's the Big 12 squad, and we have a seat for you. Know her feelings and thin skin allowed. Squad up, you're part of the Big 12 squad. Happy Thursday, everybody. Welcome inside the Dose Grande Squad. Thank you for making Locked-on Big 12, your first listed every single day. And if you don't, it's Philip Malford. He's talking all things Arizona State every day with Locked on Sun Devils,

Mountain near Paul of Locked on West Virginia, JT. Wester's show. Locked on Utes is finally back. All right. Yeah, your director of football operations or whatever it is gets canned in the middle of the night. Now he shows up to a squad show. Parker-Rainsworth of Locked-on Couges talking to all things used in. How about Kevin Borbaugh? Locked on Buffs? And the man we have to get to first. He is Chris Level of Locked on Texas Tech. I'm guilty as charged. Today's show is brought to you by Fandul, by the way, gas and grab it and go. We will start with the biggest news. the Big 12 this week. Brennan Sorsby out of Texas Tech in a gambling tiff. Now, full transparency, we record this show on Monday night to release on Thursday,

but one thing hasn't changed, and is that Brendan Sorsby on the record has over 1,000 bets, big and small across the board. They've got him in hot water, and he's now in rehab for those. If you hit subscribe, we can keep our jobs. And if you're in every day or locked on big12.com or locked on coogs.com, insert your favorite team.com for ad-free, locked on Big 12 listening. There goes Chris Level. He disappears. Parker Ainsworth, you look close enough. You're like five years younger, like a five years ago, Chris Level.

This sent shockwaves around the Big 12. No, Brendan Swartzby next season is a big possibility. Well, and I will say Houston fans specifically, if you're going to throw it to me, really took note of the other comment being that Will Hammond may not be ready by week three, which is notably when Houston and Tech open up Big 12 play with one. another and they're looking at some like interesting stuff going on behind as far as who could play in that game or whatever so i guess if we're going to throw it to houston for this one i it is interesting to see um kind of way it's all unfolded and i think several of us in her wild

group chat today we're talking about like this got leaked like this doesn't feel super new and and i think we'll probably come around to that but ultimately i think there's some empathy for like if this guy does have a problem i hope that whatever this is does help that like i like I don't want to lose complete side of that before we go too past to the next thing. Right. Like if there was some problem, right? Well, that and Chris Levels right here. Level, the first point that I, that I dug out of this was him going to rehab immediately.

Sounds like Texas Tech, Brennan Sorsby, they, hey, we've got to cover our tracks and try to look as good as possible when this investigation starts and say, hey, here's a kid, mental health issues. He's trying to fix it. He means well. He wasn't. Is that, is this an optics? thing where do we start level with this story yeah yeah i mean uh i don't i don't know if if there's like optics it play just yet um i think that what it's there's many layers to it but like this has been sitting there for three years um and how did it just now come to public light and so there's

all those questions. Cincinnati? Well, and I think there's obviously some thought that if he was betting on Reds games, which would have been last summer, that when did Cincinnati know about it? Again, that's not anybody's problem, but Texas Techs and Brendan Sorsby's right now, but they went just the timing was very odd. Yeah. And I think that he's clearly admitted to having an issue and willing to be,

dragged publicly, unfortunately, and obviously Texas text the butt end of the joke and all the stuff today and he is, but he's admitted to needing help, you know, and it, you know, this obviously touched Iowa State a few years ago. That was an underage thing with Hunter Decker's. This is more of a situation where I think he's apparently admitted to having placed wagers,

And I don't, you know, I've seen the, I'm sure we've all seen this today, like the scale that if you do this to this dollar amount, then it triggers this and then whatever. But if what was reported was thousands of small wagers, I'm sure he's, it's also fair to point out that the biggest issue is betting on Indiana football. Because when you are a college football player betting on college football, that is a major red flag. He was also betting on UFC, apparently, which is allowed. That's not against the rules, according to NCAA. So I don't know. I will tell you this, that Texas Tech is, and I think Brennan Sorsby, there's a lot of money at stake, as we all know, whether it's your his salary, whether it's your season, whether it's just your, you know, whatever. But they're going to, I don't know on what precedent they will argue it.

But I mean, there's going to be some significant attorneys acquired and services acquired that will fight this. And can you litigated enough to give one of these injunctions that happens and say, like, I don't know, next February or like that's when the court date is said. And so you can kind of kick the can down there. I don't know. But this is this was a bombshell in Lubbock, Texas on Tuesday morning. That's for sure. Hey, really quick. The one thing I just want to throw out there is one thing I think it's important to Chris brought up is if some, right?

now it's Peck and Soresby's problem. If Cincinnati covered this up so that their starting quarterback was able to play for them, then it does become a Bearcats problem. We don't know if that's the case, but I'm just saying Cincinnati is not in the clear yet based on what is being reported, in my opinion. I think the scary part about this too was, and I saw this in Pete Thammell's report, was that if he is in fact found, we'll call it guilty of betting on his own athletic department or own sport, like the minimum punishment was like six games. So it's like at a minimum, hypothetically, he's missing six games of Texas. I think that everybody around here is very prepared that he doesn't play it down here.

I think you're naive if you don't consider that as like a heavy, the heavy favorite. I also know that the folks here, if there is any grounds to fight for it or to try to defend the kid, that money is not a problem, that the best legal counsel that they can, that they can, you know, get the services of, they will pursue whatever legal options that they've got. But this was, you know, this was the biggest reason why Texas Tech was the favorite. I think he was kind of the thought that he could not only help you win in the Big 12, but maybe push a little further, contend for a Heisman trophy, men, all those kinds of things. So, yeah, their season changes dramatically if he's not here. And so they're going to, I think they will, they will seek whatever measures

they've got to try to, you know, and I will tell you too that if it if it doesn't appear that it's going to go his way, I mean, the supplemental draft in the NFL is also an option for him. So we won't know that for a period of weeks. And I just don't know who is going to say what and when they'll say it. I think that PR firms have been hired probably by the school, probably by the player. NCAA is not going to say anything. And then you read that they could rule on this fairly quickly because this is not a technically an NCAA issue. This is not a committee of infractions issue. This is just a, you know, could be cut and dry.

So maybe you get a quicker resolution. But, yeah, a wild set of circumstances here. So not good. Well, one thing, let's push this conversation too, even in a segment too. I think you can fill the whole show. It's one of your biggest storylines

you'll get all off season. And another piece I want to visit is not just that timeline, but also the prevalence of just sports betting in general. I mean, at what point does this become the whole weed thing? We're in 20 years. Like, hey, remember that one time

we were canning kids for betting on sports and then now decades later, it becomes normalized. Let's go there next. It's definitely just the iceberg. I think so. Yeah. Today's show is brought to you by Indeed. Indeed, sponsored jobs is exactly where I go for blocked on Big 12.

And that is to find new hires. And about this time every year, I'm looking for a new intern. It's been a good process of a couple people stepping up and applying via the link. And deadline stacking up for you, you know, you don't have time to comb through hundreds of possible job candidates. So Indeed makes it easy. I hope to reach people that actually fit what you're looking for. And the minute I've been talking to you, companies just like yours, made 27 hires on Indeed, according to Indeed Data World. why with Indeed sponsored jobs. Spend less time searching more time interviewing. And right now, listeners have locked on Big 12. We get $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job to premium status.

It deserves it indeed.com slash podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast. It's indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. That's a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. Paul, you said it's just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, I think so.

I mean, obviously there's the biggest influence out there. You've got public trust that's at stake. You know, is the game clean? I think we all want to know that because even if even if he didn't affect a single play, the appearance alone is enough for us to wonder about our own teams and our own livelihoods in this sport. Because if the game isn't clean, that affects us too in a way, right? I mean, it'd be a great storyline, but it affects the sport as a whole. So I think it's obviously it's about what he did, but it's also not really about what he did.

It's about what people think he could have done. And I think that's where you're going to get into some real issues because people are going to complate this and probably assume that he's done all these other things that maybe he didn't do. And it's going to just another black guy for the sport. As somebody that's obviously come through a similar situation as him, although it's a different path,

I understand what it's like to be in his situation if it's a true addiction. You know, obviously you're not yourself. situations. There's many studies on the brain, the chemistry of the brain and what those, you know, decisions do to your brain, but not trying to make any excuses for anyone, but there's definitely a lot there as far as that goes for Brendan. But yeah, I worry about the healthy of the overall sport because you've got literally, let's say hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of kids that are making close to a million dollars now. And to think that they're not going to try to amplify that wealth is just to me insane.

I don't. Can I, can I? Super, super fast, Mark, I'll jump to you. I want to give an addendum here because there will be people who list. I'm going to meet it head on who are like, oh, isn't this a show sponsored by Fandall every day? The answer is yes. I don't think there's something inherently wrong with, we've done this for years. Like, we've legalized this in most states, sports gambling for Paul or myself or the lay people of the world. What we're asking is those who are competing in these games, completely different when those who are competing in these games do it. That's where the rules begin and their strictness and they should be.

Parker, I just wanted to throw that in there. Well, and to Chris's point, right, it was not the gambling on UFC that was a problem, right? Like it was potentially this deal where he was betting on Indiana games while he's at Indiana. I think that, look, I don't mean to bust anyone's bubble or act like the good old days, weren't the good old days and all that kind of jazz.

I do think it's a little naive to think that there was no gambling 20 years ago amongst college athletes. think that there was a little naive to think the college athletes were getting paid 20 years ago and to turn that money into more money by betting on themselves very literally. I don't know how many athletes you know when you went to school and all that kind of stuff. I think that there's always been brown paper bags and this and that and he said, I mean, this is the state where they were giving away gold transams.

Bing, Bing. And I think that, like, honestly, in some ways, the professionalization of gambling and the putting it online and tracking IP addresses almost has made it. it easier to catch and almost getting caught so bigger to turn now than ever before, right? And like when there weren't cell phones and being pinged off of radars and whatever, who know? Like, I think there's enough stories that lead you to think that like it actually might just be that people getting caught. We're diagnosing these things more often now in a way that we weren't before because we have

the tools to do that because it is so proliferate. It's everywhere. Yes and yes and no, Parker, because I mean, clearly here, he had been. doing this for years and he was not caught because Fandu reported him or you know some other betting app whatever reported him he was caught because someone that knew him said hey this is happening we don't know who it was at this point could be Cincinnati whoever you know there reports that Indiana he was doing stuff back at Indiana don't really know but even with all this advanced tech it's not it apparently at this point as far as we know is not some bookie some some sports

book letting people know that this happening again it was elsewhere and then you got to go into like, you know, polymarket, like the other offshore, overshores betting markets. Yeah, Calci. Even if they're not going, like, through a traditional sports book, right, you can go and you can bet on sports on these other platforms. Which, to be fair, regulated. If he was going mainstream here with the BetMGM app, what an idiot. I can't help you there. Like, I can't, like, I remember vividly my high school athletic director, but hey, I met your grandma.

I was like, that's really cool. Where'd you guys meet? He's like, oh, at our bookie's funeral. Every Saturday morning, she would, like, we, they'd go, he dropped cash off. Yeah, open up the mailbox, drop the cash in there, a little slip of paper, had all the picks on it. Like, and guess what? You could never catch them. There was no paper trail.

No, but not until the funeral. The funeral is bad. The funeral was, yeah, a lot of, yeah, the soprano photographs. Phil, he also, though, is noted here as making thousands of tiny bets, right? That's the whole, and like, under a dollar. Many were under a dollar. Is anyone,

is anyone going to actually? Baseball games, like that is, balls is the baseball games, which is obviously very important. Does he know Emmanuel Claisse? Do you really think that he's the only person putting a thousand single to two dollars? I mean,

with people making literal millions of dollars. Like, like, I think that this is, look, competitive people like winning. This is at some point, Michael Jordan talked about it in the last dance act.

Like, some people just like winning. Like, this is a way to win every day. I don't play player Michael Jordan, that one? Yeah, minor league baseball player

Michael Jordan, famous guy. He loved winning so much that he left the NBA on his own accord to play minor league baseball.

Shouts to some NBA titles that were happening because of that actually. That was great. Did anybody else do their

Sorsby segment leading right into the Fandulry? Yeah. You missed this. You should have a bonus episode on Monday.

So it was indeed we're looking for jobs which who knows. Right. Ors something depending on how that goes. But I do want to go back actually to something

that Drake said before we had the breaking I'm saying, are we just going to look at this in 20 years like we look at marijuana today where, you know, it's not a big deal. And Drake, I, that is no, I don't think we ever will because there's a difference between, you know, someone does. Weed is so good, obviously, if they had to at some point. It has a medicinal purpose. No, not even that is, you know, there's a difference between I take a mind-altering substance and I do something and I throw a game.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you know, that is a very, you know, that is a very, this. stakes on that one are incredibly different. It's as I think what Paul was saying, like for the trust, for the value of even just watching a sport. I think in 20 years we may see gambling restrictions at all time high, honestly. Oh, yeah. Other way. It's the same thing with AI. Like I feel like there's a lot.

No, no. There's a lot of things. We can't regulate it. They stop regulating things. Yeah, two days comes out of the tube. Five years of eligibility, Drake. There's your two days. I don't know what the fix is, but there's no way that.

They're just going to openly let athletes gamble, right? They were going to let college athletes gamble on other sports. And then I think right around that time, we found out that the Portland Trailblazers were selling games and the Lakers had a coach who was giving away information. Like, I just don't think that. Former Houston Cougar, Damon Sotomayor was involved in. Yeah, like, I just don't think there's a place for gambling with athletes.

I think they're going to have to really limit them, their families. And I don't know how you do that, but it has to be done. Because that's how Hunter Decker's got caught. He set up the account with his parents, and they were able to obviously track it to him. don't know how Brendan Soresby got caught, but I do feel like we're just heading towards a lot of restrictions on gambling. Let's turn the page here to segment three, and that's where that's a really good spot to go.

And I think we have guys that disagree whether or not how this should be regulated in college sports. This is the Dosay Grande squad. Do we make this the rules more strict on this? Or ultimately, again, toothpaste out of the tube, do we find that in 10 years? Like, you know what, if you want to put $500 in the Houston Rockets to win the NBA championship, you player at Houston can do so. I don't get really betting if you have a problem. You should get some help.

All right. So shout out. But I will say if you don't have a problem, it's a really good time to put money on Drew Messmaker winning a league MVP. Thank you, Brandon. Hey, I'm just, I'm giving Brennan advice, right? Okay, if he's going to throw smackaroos down, it's time to put them down. The NBA playoffs are here and there's no better place.

Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know how to you. I don't know how you can limit this other than like raising. Well, I think what you do it is it's above board. Like NIL became above board. We could do it now with Fandul or BetMJR all the, it's above board.

Now we know what the, you can half the time you can steal people are betting publicly, right? So at some point, my $500 is a player on the Houston Rock is to win the NBA title. Above board public. Like, all right, sure, go for it. I really appreciate your optimism on the rocket. Several of us have lived in Texas though. And Texas is not a sports book state.

You can get off the coastline on a. on a cruise line or up to the border across. I mean, they'd sell party buses to go back and forth from Dallas to Oklahoma, right? Up to the border. To the border, exactly. You just see. He's just chocked-talked. Yes.

Yeah. You could see from the Dallas guy. I wasn't going to give them a free pup, but there you go. So I do think, though, that the interesting thing you mentioned is the idea of the polymarket aspect of this whole thing, right? The, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the causeies of the world for, if we're throwing brands out there. Like, Janus was representing them as a pro basketball player with

than hours of him choosing to return to Milwaukee. Is Paul moving for you guys? Is Paul? No, he's not moving. But I think that the polymarket thing almost takes it towards beyond like Thanduel and that stuff seems tame relative to the chaos being able to influence those kinds of markets. And maybe in the same way, like actual NIL deals felt tame relative to the chaos that was happening in those couple of years of Wadwad West. Like maybe that is, maybe Fandul and these more regulated books are actually

coming back towards putting some toothpaste. How do we put a rule down saying you can't buy shares of your team being a six and a half point favorite? What is that rule lined out as? Pete Rose. I don't know. Leaving in your team is a crime. No, I don't know. I'm saying like if you're going to polymarket, that's where you buy shares of things.

It's like I'm buying eight shares of Texas Tech minus six and a half. Where's the rule it says ye shall not buy shares of a team? I don't know how you like that. It's got to be contract. I think the schools have to lay down the law. Obviously, I don't know how you. The school. Really?

I don't know how legislation is. I mean, you have to have some sort of guideline or net, right? You can't just be like, we're going to complain about this every time it affects us. No, schools. I think if anybody's supporting, if anybody's supporting Soros do right now, it's Texas Tech. The school is doing everything in their power to help that kid get on the field. They can not be the schools. They have a $5 million investment in their season may have just flashed before their eyes.

Of course, I can't be the school. So it shouldn't be the school. Somebody else has to enforce this. Hey, God, real quick. I do have a question for Mr. Christopher Level. If Brendan Sorsby was still a Cincinnati Bearcat, would this be a thing? I would, I would, I would be very curious to note that. I think it, I think it's interesting because they've, they knew about it, right?

They already knew about it. Well, that's, that's the word. I don't know if anybody, how anybody's supposed to prove that. It's just curious to me that the problem here stems from something that happened three years ago. Right, yeah. I mean, and he was a registered. They know, like, I've talked to enough people today to know that everybody in an athletic department has their cell phone information given. that there's different things that the NCAA empowers athletic departments with these apps that will trigger.

And it doesn't matter if you're the star quarterback or if you're like a student manager somewhere. If you try to place any kind of wager on any of these online things, it triggers immediately. And in a lot of cases, it will block it. But it goes straight to the compliance folks. And I don't know, you know, I mean, is this an Indiana issue? Is this a Cincinnati issue? This is clearly a Brendan Swarthby issue. But I mean, the timing of it is interesting.

And the timing is. It does not come out in vetting as well. I'm just curious. Do you have any idea on that, Chris? I believe they found out about it initially about a week and a half ago here. I mean, how do you, yeah. I mean, it's not something you can vet necessarily. They wouldn't have rolled the dice on the kids if they thought he had a gambling problem.

So it's interesting. though because this is all sending from bets placed at Indiana. It's a problem and a problem in his current life that he's going to rehab for it now. But there's time in between is just a mystery box. Like to me that

that gap into itself, that's where to me, and I would sure I hate to put it on the kid but it seems like we're taking the PR firm says, hey, he's going to have to go to rehab. The only going to make this look good is he has to go to rehab. And then he needs rehab. But that was an instant.

PR moved up. Only could it help him. That's like image. You've got to help the image. And that makes me think that there is something more to come out. Like we, we just saw this last week with Mike Frable. Like he wasn't skipping day three of the draft because he was caught

Sedona. They knew that these other pictures and Diana was eating. There were other pictures coming out. And from six years ago. So that's why you skip day three of the drafts. Like these are the kinds of things like where maybe I'm just cynical, but I'm like, uh, maybe they're,

might be something more here. Y'all heard it here first. Cam Stewart. Cam Stewart is calling it right now. This young man is about to be addressable. This is a town mill Gibson. I mean, Oklahoma got lucky last year with John Mateer, right?

But that's different. This feels like we have like an IP address and Brennan Sorosby taking pitches. John Matier Venmoed some random guy. I am sports gambling when he was in high school. I mean, it could have been a joke. That's his main defense. I can no anyone and say like thank you for paying for my wedding or something.

Yes, but it wasn't like an IP address and we track it to an app and this is. Thousands of gas thousands of bets. Yeah. Like Texas tech lawyers would crush a Venmo this second. They would yeah. They would feel like that'd be like the best case scenario. Just like, oh, he was, I don't know, Venmoing. Joking around. Yeah. And honestly, the only way he got caught is if he has an offshore account and maybe you got flags somewhere or he had a bookie that reported them like he or someone knew of his gambling because he had to go through someone. because Indiana, he wasn't of legal age anyway, right? He just turned 21. He just turned 21 in this past year.

So he wasn't legalized to gamble. Don't you have to be 18 in Oklahoma? God, I love Oklahoma, man. I've always said that. I think you have to be 18 years old. I don't know. I know last season 21. Yeah, like I'm not in Oklahoma.

That code, look at Cody's shaking his head. Yeah, there's a lot. I think in Shreveport, Louisiana, you can go get on. a gambling boat at 18 years old. Boisier City, baby. Like Bois City, like 14 and a half. Yeah. Like real estate. It's all about location,

I guess. I didn't think of that. Location, location, location. Which leads me into my next story. 17 in Texas. It's 17 in Texas. Whenever I, so I used to work in an illegal gambling den. And of course you did, Paul. Of course you did. I did. Yeah.

So it was called that beautiful again. You can actually Google it when we're done. It was called Skylake. And they had several. I would say probably 12 of those chemo machines. And so they would give me like $9,000 at the beginning of each shift to put in the lockbox. And as people cashed out, I would take their receipt and just basically trade the money with the receipt. And then the police came. I had no clue. I was like, they do that. They've been doing that recently. Yeah, I was like 23 or something at the time. And here

came to police, you know. Paul, running numbers. Yeah. It's great in the day. It's great. Yeah. And there were some, there were some wild people that came in there, man. But this was a fishing lake, man, and it was a big one. But yeah, you had to learn. You got paid way more from doing that back there. Did you ever see

Brennan Sorbsby come through? You don't have to. That was my next thing. That was actually whenever he was at Cincinnati. Did you finger Brendan Sorbsby? What? I think think this crime. Hey, come again? I definitely pointed him out. Well, if you do it right, Cody.

That's the BYU people are listening. You can't do that. America. Where are you going with this, Paul? Hold on. I'm dialed into the story. You're saying something about my run in with the illegal gambling situation in my life, right? But, you know, it was pretty interesting because the guy's name was Tracy is now in federal prison for that.

so you know i'm so like crazy it's always i would rather tell it off camera because it's not it's one of those stories i've learned not to turn on camera you're allowed not tell that story we won't force you what a what a tease yeah i will as soon as we locked on mountaineers sign up for the every day or come lock on paul will talk every day there we're all like this out there's just say that once i realize that that money shut up paul Wow, well, we learned something today. We laughed, we cried, and the fate of Brendan Sorsby, Hanks. I would be happy.

Yes, with all of this, surely. And again, by the time this comes out Thursday, much will have changed. News will come out, most likely. But this is the immediate reaction, and the meat and potatoes are what you need to know. There will not be a major decision, I assume, by Thursdays. So you're getting civil live reaction from those, like, level, who are close to the situation on Brendan Sorsby. Mountaineer, Paul, the Parker, Innsworth, Cameron Stewart, Philip Mulford. Tony Stoveall, Chris Lovell, JT. West, you're still and Kevin Borba all right here.

Thanks for making our shows, your first listen every single day. Remember that every day or club. Insert team name here, locked on Big 12, locked on Baylor, locked on Utes.S.com for ad-free locked on Big 12, doing that every day or club. This has been, it always will be. Locked on the Dose Grande Squad.