Brendan Sorsby eligibility case: Judge Ken Curry, Houston law graduate, assigned as replacement

Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby‘s eligibility lawsuit vs. the NCAA has a new presiding judge, and he’s not a Red Raiders graduate like the last one. This comes one day after Lubbock County District Court Judge Phillip Hays, who has two degrees from Texas Tech, formally recused himself on Wednesday.

Retired Tarrant County judge Kenneth C. Curry has been assigned to the case by 9th Administrative Judicial Region presiding judge Anna Estevez, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. The 9th Judicial Region includes Lubbock. The Sorsby v. NCAA case will be Curry’s first since 2019.

Curry earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas-Arlington in 1974 and then graduated from the University of Houston Law Center in 1976, according to his law profile on Trellis. Curry formally retired from the bench in 2012, but has continued serving as a visiting judge for Tarrant County, per Trellis.

Sorsby’s legal challenge, filed Monday in Lubbock County District Court, is viewed as an attempt to expedite the NCAA investigative process in hopes of learning his potential fate ahead of a June deadline to declare for the NFL’s Supplemental Draft. Sorsby recently retained noted antitrust lawyer and NCAA nemesis Jeffrey Kessler, who was among the lead attorneys in the landmark Alston v. NCAA and House v. NCAA cases over the past few years, both of which resulted in significant losses for the NCAA and ushered in widespread changes to college athletics.

Texas Tech formally declared its star transfer QB ineligible on Monday after finalizing an agreed-upon stipulation of facts with the NCAA and Sorsby’s legal team. The school also announced its intent to “quickly initiate the reinstatement process” and that “Texas Tech’s primary focus remains supporting Sorsby’s health and well-being.”

In the meantime, Sorsby is taking an “indefinite leave of absence” from the Red Raiders program while he seeks counseling for an admitted “gambling addiction,” Texas Tech announced April 27. In his lawsuit, Sorsby’s legal team confirms he has placed “thousands” of bets since 2022, including several on Hoosiers football games when he was a true freshman at Indiana. He also allegedly placed several live wagers at multiple Cincinnati Reds games while he attended Cincinnati between 2024-25, per Nakos. Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech this offseason as one of the most sought-after players in the NCAA Transfer Portal.

NCAA guidelines from 2023 on sports betting say: “Student-athletes who engage in activities to influence the outcomes of their own games or knowingly provide information to individuals involved in sports betting activities will potentially face permanent loss of collegiate eligibility in all sports. This would also apply to student-athletes who wager on their own games or on other sports at their own schools.”