For years, sports gambling felt like something sitting outside college athletics, tucked away in Vegas odds and fan chatter. But that distance has started to disappear. The Brendan Sorsby situation has now put a real face on the problem, showing how one betting mistake can follow a college athlete into the biggest moment of his career. Sorsby is learning that the NCAA still has one line it does not treat lightly: never bet on your own school. And for Charlie Baker, that is only one part of a larger concern, one that he addressed recently. 

“Yes,” Charlie Baker said during an appearance on The Triple Option with Rob Stone. “Not on the kids’ side, but I think the gambling thing generally has become incredibly abusive for kids. If you pick the number one thing student-athletes talk to me about, it’s the way they get harassed, not just by people they’ve never met, but by people on their own campus who are looking for them to help them ‘make money.’” 

You can already picture 19- and 20-year-old athletes walking around campus with other students financially invested in their stat lines. Charlie Baker’s point is simple: when a player’s stat line becomes someone else’s bet, the pressure changes fast. A missed throw or a quiet game can turn into angry messages, campus harassment, or worse. So the NCAA president doubled down on the same answer that college “prop bets” should be done away with.

“I think we should get rid of all prop bets for college sports,” he said. “And at a minimum, get rid of all the negative prop bets because those put tremendous pressure on kids, and it really sucks.”

You could hear the frustration in his words. And this isn’t even the first time he’s called for tighter limits on college betting. Earlier this year, Baker sent letters to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and state gambling commissions, asking for stronger protections around college athletes. The Big Ten’s Student-Athlete Issues Commission also urged Baker to keep pressing for limits or a full ban on individual prop bets, citing harassment, mental strain, and threats to competitive integrity.

“While we understand that sports betting is becoming increasingly more common across the country and allows for states to generate increased tax revenue, prop betting represents unique risks at the college level,” the Big Ten SAIC wrote. “We believe protecting student-athletes must be a priority.”

Charlie Baker’s warning also fits a bigger enforcement pattern. The NCAA said in January that it had investigated 40 student-athletes across 20 schools over the past year, with violations tied to betting on their own performances, sharing insider information, or manipulating games.

“This behavior resulted in a permanent loss of NCAA eligibility for all of them,” the NCAA statement read. “Additionally, 13 student-athletes from eight schools (including some of those identified above) were found to have failed to cooperate in the sports betting integrity investigation by providing false or misleading information, failing to provide relevant documentation, and/or refusing to be interviewed by the enforcement staff. None of them are competing today.”

The NCAA also made it clear that collegiate prop bets remain one of its biggest targets. Baker said the association runs an integrity monitoring program covering more than 22,000 contests, but argued that states, regulators, and gaming companies still need to eliminate threats such as collegiate prop bets. The concerns are straightforward: increased harassment of student-athletes, mental health strain, constant accusations from angry bettors, and threats to competitive integrity.

Now the NCAA is trying to slam the brakes before the situation gets uglier. And while Charlie Baker is speaking against prop bets publicly, one former QB is already living through the fallout.

The consequences of Brendan Sorsby’s gambling 

Brendan Sorsby is finding out the hard way that the NCAA still draws one very hard line. And that’s to never bet on your own school. According to reports first detailed by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the QB admitted he placed bets on Indiana games during the 2022 season while he was on the roster.

“I rationalized placing those bets as a way to feel more connected to the team,” he wrote in his affidavit. “To root for my friends, and to feel like I had a real ‘stake’ in the games that I otherwise was not involved in.”

Sorsby also said he never bet against Indiana, never used non-public information, and did not play in the games he wagered on. His filing described the Indiana bets as small wagers, between $5 and $50, either for the Hoosiers to win or for teammates to exceed expectations. But that explanation did not change the NCAA’s position because its rule is clear: student-athletes cannot bet on NCAA-sanctioned sports, and betting connected to one’s own school is treated as especially serious.

So, what was supposed to be a redemption story back home at Texas Tech has turned into a major eligibility fight. Sorsby, a Lake Dallas product, arrived at Texas Tech after two seasons at Cincinnati and was one of the top-ranked players in the transfer portal. He had thrown for 2,800 yards and 27 touchdowns last season and reportedly signed an NIL deal worth around $6 million. On Monday, the Red Raiders officially declared him ineligible. On Monday, the Red Raiders officially declared their $6 million transfer QB ineligible.

“After finalizing an agreed-upon stipulation of facts between Texas Tech University, the NCAA, and Brendan Sorsby, the university has declared Sorsby ineligible for competition,” the school said in a statement. “Texas Tech intends to quickly initiate the reinstatement process. Texas Tech’s primary focus remains supporting Sorsby’s health and well-being.”

That last line matters because Sorsby’s case is not only about eligibility. He took a leave of absence from Texas Tech last month to enter a treatment program for gambling addiction, and his legal filing says he has been in an inpatient residential treatment facility since late April. His attorneys described his gambling disorder as a clinically diagnosed mental health condition and accused the NCAA of taking a “deeply hypocritical” position while profiting from the broader gambling ecosystem around college sports.

The NCAA pushed back on that framing. In a statement, the association said its sports betting rules and reinstatement conditions are clear. “When it comes to betting on one’s own team, these rules must be enforced in every case for the simple reason that the integrity of the game is at risk,” the NCAA said. “Every sports league has these protections in place, and the NCAA will continue to apply them equally because every student-athlete competing deserves to know they’re playing a fair game.”

Sorsby’s side has argued that the punishment would be disproportionate because he admitted wrongdoing, did not bet against his team, did not share insider information, and did not influence any game outcome. His filing says he offered to accept a two-game suspension after completing treatment and to work with the NCAA to educate others on the dangers of gambling. It also argues that the NCAA’s delay has left him facing an impossible timeline, with his college eligibility, Texas Tech’s planning, and the NFL supplemental draft deadline all hanging over the case.

This latest saga makes Charlie Baker’s concern feel even more urgent. Sports gambling has now fully clashed with the reality of college athletics. For Baker, the fear is about harassment and integrity. For Sorsby, the fight is about punishment, treatment, and whether one gambling violation should cost him the season that could shape his future. Together, they show why the NCAA’s gambling problem is no longer theoretical.