Sorsby and NCAA await ruling after judge hears case as QB seeks eligibility after admitting bets

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Attorneys for Brendan Sorsby and the NCAA presented arguments before a district judge Monday as the Texas Tech transfer quarterback seeks an injunction to allow him to play next season after he acknowledged making thousands of impermissible bets while in college.

There was no immediate ruling from Senior Judge Ken Curry after the two-hour hearing, or any indication of when he would rule on a temporary injunction against the NCAA. An injunction would not change Sorsby being declared permanently ineligible by the NCAA, but would put that on hold as the case proceeds.

Sorsby did not attend the hearing in the 99th District Court in Lubbock County, where Texas Tech is located.

Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney who negotiated the House settlement against the NCAA and is now representing Sorsby, requested a ruling by June 15. That would be a week before the deadline for Sorsby to apply for the NFL supplemental draft if he remains ineligible to play for the Red Raiders this fall.

Kessler told the court the 22-year-old Sorsby has a diagnosed addiction and anxiety-driven compulsion. He said the quarterback was never motivated by financial gain in his gambling and never sought to alter or compromise the outcome of a game. Sorsby, who transferred to Texas Tech for a reported multimillion-dollar deal after playing for Cincinnati the past two seasons, recently completed a month-long residential treatment program for gambling addiction.

According to a clinician who treated Sorsby, Kessler said, not allowing the quarterback to play would hurt his mental health and impede the progress of his recovery.

NCAA lead attorney Taylor Askew questioned how being allowed to play again in college, and putting him back into the situation that triggered his behavior, would help Sorsby’s mental health. As for NCAA rules, Askew said, Sorsby would have been ruled ineligible long ago had his gambling been known in the past.

Court filings revealed that on March 11 the NCAA received a tip from an online gambling book, which had been informed by law enforcement, about Sorsby’s gambling activity. Texas Texas was notified April 14 that the NCAA was doing an investigation.

“If this were just one or two violations, it would still render him ineligible,” Askew told the judge. “This is thousands of violations, 40 individual bets on Indiana football when he was a member of the team, he was on the roster. He just wasn’t traveling. A member of the team, that’s permanent ineligibility.”

According to court documents, Sorsby made thousands of bets totaling at least $90,000 while in college. That included at least 40 bets on Indiana football when he was a Hoosiers freshman in 2022, though none on games that he played in over two seasons there.

The documents show that Sorsby made at least 2,900 bets totaling more than $30,000 while at Indiana from June 2022 through December 2023. He continued betting after transferring to Cincinnati, though not on the Bearcats. He provided more than $60,000 to a friend to deposit into a shared FanDuel account registered in another name.

Sorsby transferred to Texas Tech after last season, to a state where online betting is illegal, and electronically transferred about $5,000 to other individuals who placed bets on his behalf.

Texas Tech announced on April 27 that Sorsby was taking an indefinite leave of absence to enter a residential treatment program.

Coach Joey McGuire said last week that the quarterback would still be able to participate in offseason workouts with the Red Raiders after returning to campus. Their season opener is Sept. 5 at home against Abilene Christian. Texas Tech won the Big 12 last season before a loss in the College Football Playoff capped a 12-2 season.

Sorsby sought the injunction against the NCAA in a lawsuit filed May 18, the same day Texas Tech ruled him ineligible, a necessary step before the school could pursue his reinstatement. Tech filed that request for reinstatement the following day, and the NCAA denied it May 22. Texas Tech is appealing that ruling.

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FILE - Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby (2) walks off the field after a NCAA college football game against Baylor, Oct. 25, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Tanner Pearson, file)

FILE - Quarterback Brendan Sorsby attends an NCAA college basketball game between Texas Tech and Houston, Jan. 24, 2026, in Lubbock, Texas. (AP Photo/Annie Rice, file)

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — At least 282 cases of Ebola disease have been confirmed in Congo’s growing outbreak, the central African nation says, as patients who recovered related their experiences to The Associated Press. One man spoke of his “indescribable joy" at beating the illness.

The outbreak remains focused in eastern Ituri province, where 264 cases have been confirmed, the health ministry said. Congo has reported more than 1,000 suspected cases of the Bundibugyo virus, the species of Ebola that was confirmed weeks after the outbreak quietly began. There is no approved medicine to treat it, or vaccine.

The outbreak has spread to 22 health zones across three eastern provinces, government data shows, even as the World Health Organization has sought to highlight signs of progress like new deliveries of supplies to deeply under-resourced health centers.

Congo's health ministry says the main challenges in containing the outbreak in the remote region include early detection and rapid isolation of cases, rigorous contact tracing, safe and dignified burials and strengthening infection prevention and control in health facilities.

Meanwhile, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations said Monday that it would commit up to $62 million to accelerate development of three experimental vaccines targeting Bundibugyo. The three in development are from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Moderna and the University of Oxford.

Health workers have been at high risk. WHO honored five of them as survivors over the weekend, during a visit by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as he opened a new Ebola treatment center in Bunia, capital of Ituri province.

Baraka Bulambulu, a nurse, said that he was thrilled after the final Ebola tests on him returned negative.

“Coming out of this illness alive is an indescribable joy," Bulambulu said with a wide grin.

Ezo Étienne, another nurse who recovered, said that he had started feeling dizzy as he checked on patients.

“I called the team and told them, ‘Something’s wrong here,'" he recalled. "I decided to rest for a bit, and a few minutes later I started vomiting.”

The virus is spread through close contact with sick or deceased patients’ bodily fluids. Treatment has mostly targeted patients' symptoms, WHO has said.

“Your courage gives hope and your living story that this outbreak can be stopped,” Tedros told the health workers on Sunday.

Despite challenges that include threats by armed groups and anger against health workers by some wary residents, the recoveries are “a victory worth celebrating,” said Dr. Dieudonne Mwamba Kazadi, director-general of Congo’s National Institute of Public Health.

“It’s a strong message that it is possible to recover from Ebola when seeking care early in a dedicated health facility,” he said.

The neighboring nation of Uganda has reported nine cases of Ebola in this outbreak and closed its border with Congo, seeking to limit its spread. Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in Congo and Uganda, the Bundibugyo virus has been rare.

Attacks in the region by the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, a rebel organization allied with the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias have also hindered the response.

ADF fighters killed 16 people Saturday in Beni, North Kivu province, an area also affected by the outbreak, the Congolese government said Monday in a statement.

The illness also has been reported in both North Kivu and South Kivu, south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls many key cities, including Goma and Bukavu.

Jean-Yves Kamale contributed to this report from Kinshasa.

A view of a ward at the Evangelical Medical Center (CEM) during a visit by the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visits health workers at the Evangelical Medical Centre (CEM) in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Healthcare workers who have recovered from Ebola pose for a photo in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, right, shakes hands with Ezo Etienne, a health worker who recovered from Ebola in Bunia, Congo, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)