Sorsby gambling addiction casts light on issue that could affect thousands of college athletes
In the eight years since the Supreme Court cleared the way for legal sports gambling across the country, the bad headlines for college sports have picked up. Coaches being tainted by scandals at their programs. The social media pressure on athletes to perform for gamblers.
The arrests and indictments of players, former players and associates betting on the outcome of games few remember. The back-and-forth over whether to allow college athletes, who can now earn millions, to bet on pro or college sports. This week, the problems were underscored in a dramatic way: Brendan Sorsby, set to become the well-paid quarterback of Big 12 defending champion Texas Tech, stepped away to seek treatment for a gambling addiction.
Investigations are reportedly under way involving a potential Heisman Trophy hopeful and his stays at Indiana and Cincinnati before his transfer to Texas Tech ahead of next season. Details have not been released about Sorsby's gambling. But experts estimate that thousands of athletes in men's college sports are engaged in compulsive gambling.
“Statistically, I think this is still only the tip of the iceberg,” said Keith Whyte, a gambling industry consultant and former executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. “Given the elevated risk factors for young, male college athletes to demonstrate a high propensity to bet on sports and take on other risk-taking behaviors, there’s probably a lot more guys that have problems. So in some ways, I really admire his decision to publicly seek help for a gambling problem.
” The NCAA is the largest organization in college athletics, with some 500,000 athletes across 1,100 schools in three divisions. Its most recent survey of athlete gambling behaviors, released in January 2025, asked 13,306 male athletes across all divisions about their wagering habits. Some 21.
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