Big Ten officials expected to discuss league-wide mandate to not play Texas Tech, per report
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Programs around the country are reeling in the aftermath of Monday’s giant newsbreak: Brendan Sorsby has been granted a preliminary injunction, allowing him to play college football next season despite admitting to betting heavily on sports while at Indiana and Cincinnati.
The response was almost immediate. Late Monday evening, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that in wake of the Sorsby ruling, Big Ten officials are expected to discuss a league-wide mandate against scheduling or playing Texas Tech across all sports. That’s via 3 unidentified Big Ten sources, per Thamel.
As reported yesterday, both Georgia and Nebraska sent administration-wide memos have already instructed their teams not to schedule the Red Raiders moving forward. Similarly, Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported Monday that multiple Big 12 ADs have had serious talks on doing the same.
Of course, it’s still tough to say whether this is performative or truly set to impose a trickle-down effect across college athletics.
No doubt, programs and administrators are unhappy with the ruling. However, no Big Ten program is scheduled to play Texas Tech in football this coming season, for example.
And while Georgia and Nebraska’s decisions could affect the Red Raiders down the road if A). their collective resolve is firm enough and B.) this line of thought spreads to enough programs throughout the country (i.e. the Big Ten does decide to collectively stop playing Texas Tech, etc), it’s a whole new deal entirely for Big 12 programs to join in on a potential ban. Would the Big 12 actually consider dropping already scheduled games with league and TV contracts tied in? It’s one thing to say it, it’s an entirely new thing to actually go out there and do it.
Stay tuned.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
