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With NCAA investigating Brendan Sorsby's gambling, here's when FBI gets involved
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- With NCAA investigating Brendan Sorsby's gambling, here's when FBI gets involved
The FBI could choose to investigate the alleged gambling activities of Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby , two different people with knowledge of Sorby's situation told USA TODAY Sports. The people talked on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly about an ongoing NCAA investigation.
Sorsby, a fifth-year senior with his third college program, is seeking professional help for a "gambling addiction" after checking himself into a gambling treatment facility. Texas Tech officials issued a statement of support for Sorsby on April 27.
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Nonetheless, his situation could draw scrutiny from the federal government.
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"It's not guaranteed but it could be," a college executive briefed on Sorsby's specific situation told USA TODAY Sports of the potential for an FBI probe into Sorsby's alleged gambling activities. "I don't think it's automatic, but would it be in their jurisdiction or perhaps what they are interested in? Yeah."
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Sorsby signed with Indiana out of Lake Dallas (Texas) before transferring for two seasons at Cincinnati. In January he moved to Texas Tech, the defending Big 12 champion.
Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby stands next to offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich during spring football practice, Thursday, March 26, 2026, at the Womble Football Center.
Another person with direct knowledge of the Sorsby case, who stressed it's not yet conclusively known if Sorsby bet on his own team(s) at any point, added that "a flag alerts them ( ProhiBet/IC360 , the third-party partner used in college athletics for gambling oversight, which then notifies the respective school) the second a student-athlete puts a wager on an NCAA-sponsored sport, it's a flag and an investigation starts.
"The second and third layer would be if you've placed a wager on your sport in question, usually the FBI gets involved. It's all an automated process. There's human interpretations (for lesser offenses, such as gambling on an unrelated sport), like signing up for FanDuel and then placing a wager on let's say a basketball game. There can be some human interpretation and discussion. But when you're signing up, that's when there is dialogue started.
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"But when you place a wager on college football as a college football student-athlete, you're probably going to get an FBI investigation and usually it's fairly quickly. That's done. That's almost automatic."
The University of Cincinnati, Sorsby's college home for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, on April 27 declined comment when contacted by USA TODAY Sports after the investigation into Sorby's gambling became public. The NCAA said in a statement provided to USA TODAY Sports that "due to confidentiality rules put in place by NCAA member schools, (it) will not comment on current, pending or potential investigations" while noting it takes "sports betting very seriously and is committed to the protection" of student-athletes' as well as integrity of sport. The Big 12 has not publicly commented on Sorsby, whose last and current football programs are Big 12 members.
USA TODAY Sports reached out to ProhiBet, the contracted service used by the NCAA and at least all Power Four Conferences, for comment but had not been answered as of publication.
As explained to USA TODAY Sports, not every eligible instance is investigated by the FBI because of each FBI field office's workload and also variables such as the amount of money directly related to the gambling in question.
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How do NCAA gambling investigations work? How the NCAA seeks to monitor, enforce gambling protocols
How do the NCAA, its member institutions and its conference entities seek to prevent gambling, monitor gambling activity and respond once an student-athlete is flagged for potential gambling activity?
NCAA Bylaw 10.3 specifically deals with the association's designations and rules regarding gambling:
NCAA Bylaw 10.3 : SPORTS WAGERING ACTIVITIES
The following individuals shall not knowingly participate in sports wagering activities or provide information to individuals involved in or associated with any type of sports wagering activities concerning intercollegiate, amateur or professional athletics competition:
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(a) Staff members of an institution's athletics department;
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(b) Nonathletics department staff members who have responsibilities within or over the athletics department (e.g., chancellor or president, faculty athletics representative, individual to whom athletics reports);
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(c) Staff members of a conference office; and
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(d) Student-athletes.
Three people familiar with these protocols spoke to USA TODAY Sports about the operation into gambling activities.
Notably, the NCAA has different tiers of gambling offenses — and, importantly, two different types of probes.
Those are integrity and prohibited bettor investigations.
Integrity focuses on the alleged potential altering or manipulation of a game(s) by student-athletes or officially designated athletics department staff — ranging from coaches, support staff, administrators, medical staff and additional employees. These designations are required of each member institution.
Lists of student-athletes and designated employees are turned into the oversight service, with IC360/ProhiBet — a third-party oversight company formerly contracted by each of the Power-Four or Autonomous-Four Conferences, as well as some additional conferences but not all of them, according to a ranking official.
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An executive at a power conference program told USA TODAY Sports urgent action is the top priority when a designated individual is flagged for gambling activity.
"Immediate suspension from team activities until resolution" is warranted if staff are notified by ProhiBet of gambling activity by a current student-athlete, the individual said. "Slightly depends on context, but we would meet with them, have ProhiBet give us data on what/where gambling took place.
"And we would have to make a pretty swift decision from there."
The NCAA, USA TODAY Sports has learned, had more than 100 prohibited bettor cases in 2025, with "most of those" designated as Level III violations and handled with minimal penalties/punishment. It is expected to surpass that number in 2026.
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However, per NCAA rules, every instance of prohibited gambling activity is required to be reported by a school to college athletics' governing body.
The lesser, "prohibited gambling violations" were likened to misdemeanor law violations "or even traffic court," two people familiar with the process explained to USA TODAY Sports.
In recent years, the NCAA has estimated it monitors approximately 1 million student-athletes and designed employees as part of its gambling oversight.
While personal information of all student-athletes and the designated employees/staff members is supplied to the oversight platform, neither IC360/ProhiBet nor the schools or conferences has any mechanism to monitor close family members — whether that's a spouse, parents or siblings, USA TODAY Sports was informed.
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"If you're a routine, day-to-day bettor," an executive told USA TODAY Sports, noting there are up to 2,000 prop or "microbets" in any given Major League Baseball game, "it's not hard to amass thousands of bets. And, for example, a 10-leg parlay is only considered one bet; parlay bets are one bet.
"[There are] full-time athletes, full-time students and sometimes a full-time bettor. That's three full-time applications."
When did NCAA know about Brendan Sorsby gambling?
The two people specifically familiar with the Sorsby probe, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, indicated the NCAA and Big 12 had no knowledge of Sorsby's alleged gambling habits in January and only "much more recently" were both organizations notified.
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The NCAA has no commercial partnerships/sponsorships with any gaming sites; it continues not to allow advertising from alcohol companies in its national championship broadcasts.
There are, however, concerns about the potential for gambling entities to approach individual student-athletes with potential name, image and likeness proposals, a college executive told USA TODAY Sports.
It's a much more ambiguous situation now that 39 states have legalized sports gambling. Widespread sports gambling now across almost 80% of the United States also has come online around the same time as NIL monies, as well as revenue-sharing from the NCAA's House settlement, have given student-athletes vastly more disposable income.
"Betting amounts are increased," an individual with knowledge of the collegiate sports gambling data shared with the NCAA said. "From tens of dollars to hundreds and now thousands of dollars on bets."
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A source with direct knowledge of the gambling landscape in college athletics told USA TODAY Sports it is believed the federal government has "taken notice" due to the widespread nature of the college basketball gambling scandal and they are "on high alert" regarding sports (gambling) issues.
"There were 17 different schools involved in the (college) basketball betting scandal, that were known," the individual said. "That was millions of dollars."
What could be next for Brendan Sorsby?
On Nov. 8, 2023, the NCAA's Division I Council Coordination Committee announced modified, more stringent penalties for student-athletes betting on teams at their own school — even in different sports.
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That most recent NCAA guideline provides the following:
Effective immediately, reinstatement guidelines for student-athletes who wager on teams at their school — excluding their own team — will start at requiring one season of ineligibility and a loss of one year of eligibility. Student-athletes will also be required to participate in sports wagering rules and prevention education as a condition of reinstatement. Previous guidelines, as approved in June, prescribed permanent ineligibility for those cases. The adjusted guidelines may be applied to cases in which student-athletes are currently serving suspensions related to wagering on a different team at their own school that were reported on or after May 2, 2023.
"To be clear, Division I members do not encourage student-athletes to engage in sports wagering at any level, and the actions today to modify reinstatement conditions should not be interpreted as support for wagering behaviors," Council chair and Mid-American Conference Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher said at the time via statement. "NCAA members continue to prioritize integrity of competition and felt that reinstatement conditions for violations of wagering rules should reflect that focus and, when possible, also accommodate opportunities for preventative education."
If Sorsby's college career is over after 35 combined games at Indiana (11) and Cincinnati (24), could a belated path to the NFL become an option for Sorsby?
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It's possible. The NFL has not hosted a supplement draft — typically a mid-summer event — since 2023 and it has not seen a player drafted via the supplemental draft this decade. Sorsby likely would need to ruled ineligible to be allowed to apply.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Brendan Sorsby NCAA gambling investigation: When the FBI could step in
