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If the NCAA can’t stop it, the CFP should: Ban Texas Tech | Opinion
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- If the NCAA can’t stop it, the CFP should: Ban Texas Tech | Opinion
There's a potential way out of this Brendan Sorsby mess . A simple, gangster move by the College Football Playoff that could end judge shopping as we know it.
Immediately declare Texas Tech ineligible for the CFP.
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You want to play a quarterback who has not only brazenly gambled, but gambled on his own team ? Go ahead and play him.
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But your team won't play in the CFP. The integrity of the playoff supersedes all.
Don't think this is some crazy, half-cocked idea. A person with intimate knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports Monday night, "It's going to be looked at."
How could it not? A ruling released Monday morning from a judge in Texas that allowed Sorsby to play in 2026 despite his admitted habitual gambling, is not only an affront to college sports, but to all sports in this country. Once players are gambling on their sports — their teams — without fear of reprisal, the idea of fair competition ceases to exist.
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This goes beyond judge shopping , beyond trying to eliminate restraints on player movement or player earning, beyond extending eligibility another season — and directly into the ditch of you've got to be kidding me.
So how does the CFP pull off this move? It's not as difficult as you think.
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The CFP selection committee only ranks teams eligible for the playoff, and the CFP is run by a board of managers — a group of 11 university presidents and chancellors who develop, approve and review operating policies.
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It is not run by the NCAA. In fact, it's the only collegiate sports championship event that isn't governed or officially sanctioned by the NCAA.
In other words, there's a potential workaround on the Sorsby ruling — even with the judge's mandate that the NCAA cannot enforce its "Rule of Restitution" for the 2026 college football season.
Per the ruling, the NCAA can't proactively penalize member institutions before the case is adjudicated. But the NCAA won't be penalizing Texas Tech, the CFP will.
A CFP that isn't run by the NCAA, but by CFP Administration, LLC.
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The 11-member CFP board of mangers only needs a majority vote to pass governing action. That's critical in this case because — wait for it — Texas Tech president Lawrence Schovanec is on the board.
Don't you just love how it all dovetails together?
Remember, Sorsby fought the NCAA in his case, and Texas Tech was not part of the process. He hired NCAA-killer Jeffrey Kessler as his attorney, and Kessler did what he always does against the NCAA.
But any litigation against the CFP likely will have to include Texas Tech, and focus on any potential linkage between the NCAA and CFP. If the CFP can prove it's a separate entity ― which it was clearly set up to be ― it's an easier lift.
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The CFP doesn't want an admitted habitual gambler jeopardizing the integrity of its playoff.
Now, the catch: While the CFP is a separate entity, it does have university presidents serving as its board of managers. This thing will get dirty, and universities all over the country will have to choose sides.
Do you want rules and regulations and want to be governed, or do you want this ungovernable nonsense that will eventually lead to collective bargaining with players, sharing more media rights revenue (as much as 50%) and losing football entirely?
Or do you want to take one last, desperate swing at it — and use the CFP as your hammer?
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Because that's what this case is all about. The rich, regurgitating irony of it all is mind-boggling.
Texas Tech is a member of the NCAA. Texas Tech agreed to, and had input in, strict rules against gambling. As all 300-plus NCAA member institutions do.
If you gamble, you forfeit eligibility. There's no massaging that clear line of causation.
Until, that is, you can't score a lousy point in the 2025 CFP quarterfinals. Then you double down on doing whatever it takes to keep up with the Big Ten and SEC, and add the No. 1 player in the transfer portal — who just happens to be the best quarterback available.
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Texas Tech arguably had the best defense in college football in 2025, but never got enough at the most important position on the field from injured overachiever Behren Morton . Even when healthy, it was a weekly crapshoot.
With Sorsby, Texas Tech has a legitimate chance to beat any team in the country. Without him, the Red Raiders could still be a CFP team — just not as dangerous.
But that's not something to even contemplate. So they found a judge who granted temporary relief, and no one's worse for the wear. Except they are.
The entire process is worse.
Just like it was after a handful of West Virginia players decided they wanted more than one free transfer, and a local judge gave them unlimited. No rule has had a more devastating impact on college sports , reverberating through and permanently impacting roster and financial management.
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No rule until this one.
Until a pandering, pontificating judge in Texas ignored the unintended consequences of swinging open the doors to players gambling on their own teams ― after an attorney argued a gambling addiction was a mental disorder, of all things.
There's nothing left but one final, influential swing from the CFP. Ban Texas Tech from the playoff if it plays Sorsby.
This isn't about Texas Tech, it's about Sorsby and his gambling. About the ruling's impact on all sports ― college and professional ― moving forward.
And the CFP's gangster move to save competitive sports.
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Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB .
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can CFP ban Texas Tech over Brendan Sorsby gambling scandal?
