While Brendan Sorsby challenges the NCAA, the NFL continues to wait

Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano, senior NFL reporters Charles Robinson & Jori Epstein and senior NFL writer Frank Schwab react to the NCAA’s decision to deny the Texas Tech quarterback’s request to be reinstated for the 2026 season. Check out the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

The NCAA has blocked the Texas Tech quarterback’s request for reinstatement.

However, however, as many people see around, throw around the possibility of Swarsby entering a supplemental draft, you have Texas Tech, who gave him a nice NIL deal, a very nice 5 million plus NIL deal to come from Cincinnati, fighting to get their quarterback on the field.

They have faith that Swarsby is gonna come through this treatment program a changed man, and they have no concerns about whether or not there may be more gambling unearthed, more behavior from his past that should lead them to question whether or not he is the right guy for their program.

They’re on his side battling for him to play as he’s trying to overcome a gambling addiction.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, look, Texas Tech has, has clearly m- stated that we believe he has turned over everything.

That when this became an issue, m- whether it was text messages, whether it was y- you know, access to his accounts on his phone, he did everything he could to supply all the information possible.

He opened himself up to whatever the NCAA ultimately wanted to look for.

And so now that Brendan Swarsby i- is out of the inpatient treatment that he was in for, for gambling addiction, Texas Tech has welcomed him back to campus, and they’re challenging, they’re appealing the NCAA’s decision to, forfeit the remainder of his college eligibility, which is the NCAA standards if you are either betting on your own team when you’re a member of, of college athletics or you’re also b- you know, betting on other sports within your, school structure.

they’ve determined that you no longer have college eligibility.

And, and I think what’s important here now with the Swarsby case is it’s started to move along the markers that his camp has pushed for.

They wanted the NCAA, “Look, you make a decision.

We gave you all this information.

You’ve had it for a while.

we’ve offered, by the way, to take a, a two-game suspension, and you declined, you know, our, our settlement offer.

We just need you to decide, is he going to be eligible or not?

And we need to move over, move forward with that piece of information.”

Well, now the NCAA has said, “No, he’s, he’s ineligible.

We’re sticking to what our, our rules are on gambling.”

And, so now it’s, it’s effectively your move.

Now, what’s in play here, I think the next really important marker is, you know, June 1st, h- his legal team is pressing to get a, a basically an injunction to allow him to play college football.

And, you know, i- in some ways, people have looked at other cases and, and efforts at injunctions and, and they’re making comparisons, but it’s a lot of it is apples and oranges.

You know, other situations, you had athletes who are saying like, “Look, I, I didn’t play in a previous season because of whatever.”

You know, whether it was, I was sick or there was, you know, an element of injury or whatever and it eliminated a season.

This is completely different.

This is gambling.

It’s, it’s we’re in new territory here.

And I think in some ways the NCAA is saying, “Okay, we’re just in a way kinda kick this can down the road, and we’ll let the court decide is, is there going to be an injunction here allowed and, and will he be will we effectively be forced to allow him back onto a, a football field?”

Now, that’s June 1st.

The reason why that matters is because the NFL told Swarsby’s camp, “Look, you got till June 22nd.

If you wanna be in the supplemental draft, if you’re not gonna have eligibility, you have until June 22nd to file.”

So they need to get this into the court phase.

They need to have it in front of a judge.

The case already had one judge recuse.

He recused himself because he had previous ties to Texas Tech.

There’s been another, judge appointed to the case.

So everything’s in place for it to now move into the legal realm and, and a finding basically on whether or not a, a preliminary injunction will be allowed, and then I think that’s when the supplemental draft ultimately, that deadline will come into play.

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