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Former Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who was banned from the NCAA after a record of gambling on his own team dating back to his days as a backup at Indiana was discovered, applied for the NFL’s supplemental draft a couple of weeks ago after he ended a series of legal challenges against the NCAA. On Tuesday, though, the NFL announced that it wouldn’t have a supplemental draft this year (the league’s last supplemental draft choice was Jalen Thompson in 2019), meaning that Brendan Sorsby will have to wait until the 2027 draft to enter the NFL.
While the NFL probably couldn’t ban Sorsby from the sport outright, as the league functionally operates as the entire professional football market in the country and hasn’t been granted antitrust exemptions like Major League Baseball has, the league can decide when to hold the supplemental draft on its own discretion.
Below is the full text that the NFL sent Sorby about his petition being declined:
We are in receipt of your Petition for Special Eligibility, dated June 16, 2026 (“Petition”). As announced earlier today, the League has elected not to conduct a Supplemental Draft this year.
Under our Collective Bargaining Agreement, the League retains sole discretion to determine whether it is appropriate to conduct a Supplemental Draft in any given year. The League has not conducted such a draft for several years and, prior to your submission, the League had no plans to do so this year, as no other player has sought entry. Your Petition—filed three business days before the deadline, without any supporting information or documentation, and only after abandoning your recent litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions—does not provide a basis for the League to alter those plans. The issues presented by your Petition are too significant, and too closely tied to the League’s core integrity interests, to permit meaningful review within the timeline presented.
The sole reasons identified in your Petition for seeking entry into the Supplemental Draft are that you have been “declared ineligible” by the NCAA, have “exhausted all of [your] avenues to continue in the NCAA,” and “want to now play in the NFL.” The Petition provides no information regarding the basis for, or timing of, the NCAA’s decision. Public sources, however, indicate that in May 2026 the NCAA issued a determination declaring you permanently ineligible from participation in college athletics, based on a sustained pattern of improper gambling activity during your collegiate career at three different universities.
The League does not have the complete record of the NCAA’s investigation, and you did not provide any such materials with your Petition. Available information nonetheless indicates that, over the course of your collegiate career, you knowingly engaged in repeated and significant violations of NCAA rules designed to preserve the integrity of athletic competition. Reported conduct includes placing wagers on your own team and teammates and, to avoid detection, establishing or funding accounts in the names of intermediaries who placed bets...
