Congratulations, Texas Tech, you played yourself.
Specifically, in the threat levied through Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office in a letter last Thursday, which set up what became the final chapter in the Brendan Sorsby scandal in college football.
The chief of Paxton's antitrust division, Thomas York, wrote on behalf of the school, threatening legal action against any school or conference that tried to exclude Texas Tech because of Sorsby -- with language specifically aimed at the Big 12.
"Any such action would be unlawful and would expose the conference to substantial liability," York wrote
According to Sam Ehrlich, a former lawyer and current assistant professor at Boise State's College of Business and Economics, the letter created the opening for the Big 12 to sue Paxton and Texas Tech in the specific way that it did Monday: on First Amendment grounds and while seeking a declaratory judgment.
With 15 of the 16 member schools in agreement on some sort of discipline for Texas Tech should Sorsby play, the Big 12 asked a judge to allow it to legally enforce its own bylaw. The lawsuit also served as an emphatic public comment from the Big 12 on the matter.
"You know, the old line that wars are diplomacy by other means? Well, lawsuits are public relations, sometimes, by other means," another lawyer told CBS Sports.
"I think a lawsuit was going to happen regardless," Ehrlich said. "I think I think they were kind of gearing up for that too, but definitely the way they positioned the lawsuit, the way they really had the grounds to seek the declaratory judgment instead of just kind of responding after the fact if Texas Tech had sued them for trying to do something, yeah, you could definitely tie that back to Paxton's letter. I don't think that's the whole story. I don't think that's the only reason, but clearly they talked a lot about that letter in the lawsuit, and for good reason."
"Declaratory judgments are actually really hard to get. Judges don't like giving advisory opinions. They don't see that as their role, and it's not their rule. But in this kind of situation, I think it makes sense to pursue that, because it's a situation where when you're getting threatened by a state attorney general saying, hey, we're going to file a lawsuit, we feel like what you are doing is illegal."
This was also a political stunt that backfired when Texas Tech, Paxton and Cody Campbell simply got outflanked by the Big 12.
Paxton and the Texas Tech megabooster have stood together before on college sports issues, namely last fall when both publicly opposed a College Sports Commission agreement. Campaign finance records also show that Campbell and his wife, Tara, have donated more than $40,000 to Paxton over the years.
Now, in 2026, Paxton is running for higher office: the U.S. Senate in one of the hottest and most closely watched races this fall. In this instance, he publicly stood up for Campbell and one of the schools in Texas, despite protests from others, both inside and outside the Lone Star State.
The Thursday letter drew a swift response from Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who needed all the momentum he could get for Oklahoma's June 16 gubernatorial primary. He was joined on Monday by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, whose letter was co-signed by Gov. Spencer Cox. All parties said they would back the Big 12 in its legal pursuits.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser was also expected to enter the fray later this week, a spokesperson told CBS Sports.
It should also be noted that Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor and Utah athletic director Mark Harlan were two of Texas Tech's loudest detractors, making their opinions known on the record. Colorado coach Deion Sanders also didn't hold back on the matter.
"Somebody's gambling on a sport they're playing," he told The Associated Press, "You don't think something's wrong with that?"
All of that was followed by a statement from the Big 12 Board of Directors clarifying its position after the lawsuit's filing and a board meeting.
"Universities should not field players who have bet on their own team's games in college athletics," the board wrote in a statement.
This wasn't going away
The translation was that a freshly emboldened league was not going to back down.
Today's microwave attention spans are a feature of the media landscape, but this situation wasn't going away. Joey McGuire and Sorsby's now-former teammates would have had to speak for him at media days, assuming Texas Tech would have found a way to prevent him from attending. Yormark would have been forced to address it during his own press conference.
It would have continued as the summer's biggest college football talking point, against the backdrop of the NCAA's appeal seeking to enforce its ineligibility ruling and the Big 12's suit, each producing headline-grabbing filings likely right up until the start of the season.
There also could have been more legal action against the school, similar to what some in the league have mused about: potential court orders in every jurisdiction where Texas Tech played conference road games, precluding him from playing there. With multiple attorneys general involved, anything was on the board, legally.
Then there would have been the season itself to be concerned with.
Every Sorsby interception would have been analyzed like the Zapruder film for potential points shaving. Jokes would have flown at his expense for over/unders that cashed or didn't. Away-team PA systems would have blared Kenny Rogers' hit "The Gambler."
Texas Tech's Oct. 24 trip to Cincinnati would have been the only thing on this season's calendar that rivaled Lane Kiffin's return to Oxford for one of the most toxic atmospheres in recent college football history. Campbell can posture as though the team and school were ready to wear this particular black hat, but were they really in a sport whose culture, more than anything, tries to limit anything that could even hint at being a distraction?
It is clear that Texas Tech brass miscalculated how real the fury against them was and just how long it would burn. But what was particularly misguided was how they turned up the temperature late last week.
Brett Yormark's moment
In the end, it is Yormark who looks like a canny operator here.
Remember that Yormark and Campbell have been at loggerheads before. Just a few months ago, the league scheduled Texas Tech for a Friday night game against Houston on Sept. 18 -- ironically, that would have marked Sorsby's return from a two-game suspension mandated under the original injunction. Campbell heavily criticized the weeknight slot, prompting a response from Yormark.
"Cody Campbell does not run the Big 12," Yormark told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
Campbell fired back.
"As commissioner, he needs to remember that he works for the presidents, and the presidents work for the boards," Campbell told ESPN. "He is not the dictator of the conference. That's not his role. It is his responsibility to advocate for his members in all cases."
Yormark is not a college football lifer by any means, and the Sorsby case will likely define the legacy of his tenure with the Big 12. Now history will remember him as the person who pulled the right levers at the behest of a conference united in the belief that something had to be done after the NCAA became neutered.
Campbell was right back in April. Yormark is an advocate for the league's members.
From last week's AD meetings, to a meeting of presidents last week, to the smaller executive board meeting Monday, the league remained firmly 15-1 in opposition to Sorsby playing, according to any straw poll you could put together. Yormark personally took no real stance besides relating that the league was meeting and keeping all options on the table.
He didn't render a verdict in his official capacity as commissioner. Instead, he worked at the behest of the supermajority of his members and, while no official vote was taken, the league's feelings were more than clear.
Those feelings won out Monday evening when Sorsby said he was seeking to enter the supplemental draft.
Add CBS Sports on Google Join the Conversation comments
