The NFL Draft path closed for Brendan Sorsby on Tuesday when the NFL told clubs and the Texas Tech quarterback that it will not hold a supplemental draft this year. That decision leaves him ineligible to enter the league in 2026 and ends the only route he had pursued after his college eligibility was taken away.
Tuesday’s NFL decision
The league’s current collective bargaining agreement gives it the option to hold a supplemental draft, and it chose not to use that process this year. Sorsby was the only applicant, so the ruling did more than reject one filing — it shut down the event entirely.
The NFL’s management council said the league had not conducted such a draft for several years and had no plans to hold one before Sorsby’s submission because no other player had sought entry. His petition arrived three business days before the deadline, after he had already abandoned litigation efforts to avoid NCAA sanctions.
Sorsby’s eligibility fight
In May, the NCAA rescinded his college eligibility, and court records showed he acknowledged making thousands of bets worth at least $90,000 while a student-athlete at Indiana, Cincinnati and Texas Tech. A temporary injunction on June 8 had been set to allow him to serve a two-game suspension and play in 2026 before he dropped the lawsuit.
He admitted himself into a residential treatment program for gambling addiction in April, but the league said the petition did not address the NCAA findings or the betting conduct it reviewed. The council said available information indicated repeated and significant violations of NCAA rules designed to preserve the integrity of athletic competition, including wagers on his own team and teammates and accounts set up in the names of intermediaries.
What the league wrote
The management council’s letter also said, “There are also reports that you may have violated state criminal law.” It added that his filing did not demonstrate accountability or show whether, or how, he would follow league rules and policies governing competitive integrity.
For Sorsby, the result is immediate and practical: he cannot be signed by an NFL team as a free agent this year, and his remaining options point elsewhere in professional football. The Canadian Football League season kicks, leaving him without the route he tried to force through the supplemental draft.
