The NCAA wants to know what the University of Cincinnati knew about former quarterback Brendan Sorsby and his gambling issues during his two seasons with the program. According to reports by multiple media outlets, the NCAA has sent an official letter of inquiry to the school regarding Sorsby, who was ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA in April after he placed thousands of impermissible sports bets over the past four years. Sorsby spent two seasons each at Indiana and Cincinnati before transferring to Texas Tech earlier this offseason.
Texas Tech has since cut ties with Sorsby. Cincinnati coach Scott Satterfield, who was Sorsby's coach during his two seasons with the Bearcats, declined to comment on reports about the letter of inquiry at Wednesday's Big 12 Media Days in Frisco, Texas. Yahoo Sports was first to disclose the existence of the letter and ESPN also reported that Cincinnati had received it, with both citing anonymous sources.
A Cincinnati spokesperson declined to say if the school had received an inquiry from the NCAA. "We have had continuous conversations with the NCAA since the initial reports related to impermissible sports wagering began," the spokesperson said in a statement to The Associated Press. "As we have stated before, we do not believe any athletics official or staff member was aware of any impermissible sports wagering." The NCAA declared Sorsby ineligible for making bets worth at least $90,000 during his college career, igniting a legal battle.
Sorsby made at least 40 bets on Indiana while he was a freshman there in 2022, but none of those bets came on games in he played. He acknowledged placing at least 165 impermissible bets on college and professional sports totaling at least $38,000 in 2024, including three wagers on Cincinnati men’s basketball made on a FanDuel account he shared with a friend. He provided more than $60,000 to the friend to deposit in the shared account between December 2023 and June 2025.
Sorsby's stock soared after he transferred from Indiana to Cincinnati in 2024. He threw for 5,613 yards with 45 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in two seasons with the Bearcats. He was considered the top prospect in the transfer portal before he chose Texas Tech for his final year of college eligibility.
After he was banned by the NCAA, Sorsby sued and was granted an injunction that gave him the right to play, but he later dropped his unprecedented legal battle. Sorsby applied for the NFL's supplemental draft, but NFL decided not to have one. The league sent a memo to all 32 teams last week informing them that Sorsby will not seek legal action against the league after it denied his petition to enter the supplemental draft.
He is planning to enter the NFL draft next year. "I accept 100% responsibility for my actions," Sorsby posted on Instagram last week. "I did not have control of my gambling problem and it took getting caught to realize that, but it was truly the best thing that could have happened to me." Reporting by the Associated Press.
