While Big 12 leaders consider sanctions, Texas Tech reps have notified conference that any sanction will be met with legal action

Last August, just two weeks before kickoff to the 2025 football season, Big 12 athletic directors gathered to discuss a festering issue: tortillas.

Texas Tech's tradition of tossing the flour discs onto or near the football field on the opening kickoff and subsequent touchdowns made other league members uncomfortable, perturbed or downright angry. As a result, administrators voted to reinforce a longstanding game-management policy to penalize those for tossing items onto a playing surface.

Fifteen of 16 athletic directors cast supporting votes.

Almost a year later, a new issue has sent Big 12 school executives into even more passionate fury. Same school. Different issue.

Will it end in the same result?

The Texas court decision granting eligibility to Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby, despite acknowledging that he gambled on his own team, is at the center of ongoing debate within a conference whose membership is considering another measure to penalize the Red Raiders.

But while university leaders debate exercising a league bylaw to sanction the school, another potential legal battle has emerged.

Representatives of Texas Tech have notified conference officials that any Big 12 sanction would be met with another courtroom challenge, according to those familiar with the discussions. In fact, school representatives are actively exploring potential legal action not only against the league itself but individual conference universities whose officials claim they would not play the Red Raiders.

"If you want to go to battle with Texas Tech, get ready: We're going to battle," said one person familiar with the situation.

Conference and Texas Tech officials have mostly remained quiet publicly, though Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt released a statement on Wednesday, reinforcing that the school was not a party to the lawsuit and did not file it or fund it.

"Our role has been to support his recovery, not engineer his eligibility," Hocutt said in his statement.

But according to those familiar with the situation, that could soon change if the league's board of presidents and chancellors sanctions the school through a provision in the conference bylaws — something seriously under consideration. Commissioner Brett Yormark is scheduled later this week to meet with members of his executive committee (presidents at Kansas, Kansas State and BYU) and is expected next week to gather the full board, where options and legal risks will be presented.

Section 3 of the league's bylaws gives presidents the ability to sanction member schools by a supermajority vote of those not involved in the issue, or 12 of 15 schools, excluding Texas Tech. League presidents can sanction a member for a variety of reasons, including for engaging in "any action or a course of conduct materially adverse to the best interests of the conference taken as a whole." The action is at the discretion of the presidents who are "empowered to determine whether any sanctions are appropriate, the type and extent," the bylaws state.

A variety of sanctions are possible, including deeming Tech ineligible for the conference championship game if the school plays Sorsby or requiring the program to forfeit games in which he plays. The school is gearing up to respond with another legal challenge, perhaps even obtaining a similar court injunction against the conference from enforcing its bylaws, as Sorsby did against the NCAA.

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There are legal avenues for the Big 12 as well, including filing action in federal court requesting that Sorsby be prohibited from playing outside of the state of Texas, in consideration of the state court ruling Monday. Could the conference pursue something similar to the "interstate commerce clause?" It prevents states from passing laws — in this case, a court ruling — that interferes with commerce across different states.

A Big 12 sanction against Texas Tech gives Sorsby a case to show imminent harm in any second injunction hearing. The school signed him this spring to a one-year, multi-million dollar contract.

Time is of the essence. The deadline for entering the NFL supplemental draft is June 22.

The NCAA has signaled that it will appeal the Sorsby ruling — a document that is expected to be filed next week. However, despite an expedited process, any appeal ruling may come during or after the football season.

"It's a f***ing mess," deadpanned another person with knowledge of the discussions.

Meanwhile, Big 12 school administrators have launched campaigns against the school's intention to play Sorsby, a highly prized transfer portal acquisition with a years-long sports wagering addiction that Tech leaders didn't learn about until the NCAA opened an investigation this spring.

For many within the conference, that doesn't matter.

"What is integrity if every time you go and play somebody, they can bet on their own team?" asked Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, who in a story Monday at Yahoo Sports perhaps had the most jarring quote about the court decision — "It's total f***ing bull****" — and revealed that Big 12 university leaders have previously held conversations about not playing the school if Sorsby were granted his injunction.

Utah athletic director Mark Harlan was left "disheartened" by the decision. Colorado AD Fernando Lovo called the decision "troubling." UCF AD Terry Mohajir said he planned to make a recommendation to his president to take "action" against Tech if Sorsby played.

"Rules only have value when they are enforced consistently," he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Conference presidents and chancellors appear to be moving in that direction.

The frustration from the league's athletic directors materialized in a closed-door meeting Tuesday, when officials made their public comments even more clear: They do not believe Sorsby should play a down for Texas Tech.

The topic has reached even Capitol Hill, where on Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the authors of the latest college sports legislation, weighed in on the matter.

"The judicial decision was mind-blowing. It's hard to find something that illustrates more powerfully how broken the system is," Cruz said.