Big 12 media days land in Dallas with Brendan Sorsby fallout still looming

The Big 12 is set to begin its two-day football media days at The Star in Frisco this week, and the conference’s biggest storyline is not on the field. Nearly four months after reporting about impermissible betting involving Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby first surfaced, the fallout has moved from internal debate to the courtroom, and now it is arriving at a public relations pressure point. With coaches and players from all 16 Big 12 schools scheduled to speak, the league will be measured not only by football optimism, but by how it addresses the damage to relationships that has followed the legal saga.

According to reporting, the situation intensified through a series of legal filings, including lawsuits tied to the NCAA and Texas Tech, as well as the Big 12’s own involvement as the calendar turned. The latest turn described by Orlando Sentinel is that last month the Big 12 filed a federal lawsuit, and Sorsby later announced he was withdrawing his lawsuit against the NCAA, a development that, at minimum, ended one leg of his attempt to preserve his path to play this season.

For Texas Tech, the media days atmosphere reflects a program that is trying to look forward while being forced to revisit the same questions it has faced since the first public disclosures. The Orlando Sentinel report characterizes the period since March as “soap opera”-like, with repeated twists that strained ties between Texas Tech and the rest of the league. That strain matters because Big 12 media events are often where commissioners and league executives try to reset narratives, coordinate league-wide messaging, and reinforce unity ahead of kickoff.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark is expected to face that backdrop directly. One of the explicit questions raised in recent coverage is whether time and repetition can bring parties back together, or whether the league is headed into a more durable breakdown of trust. Even without any single “headline moment” on stage, the commissioner’s ability to keep the conference talking about football, expansion, and player development rather than legal conflict will shape how the rest of the sport views the Big 12’s stability during a major era of college football change.

Another storyline that is likely to surface at media days is the Big 12’s ongoing push for expanding the College Football Playoff beyond the current 12-team model. Orlando Sentinel reports that the league has already thrown its weight behind the idea of a 24-team format and that coaches have also supported it, pointing to accessibility and broader representation. At the same time, the report notes the league is not “any closer” to a deal than it was months earlier, meaning media days may turn into a renewed reminder of a policy fight that has not yet produced a result.

Beyond the Sorsby fallout and playoff expansion, the conference will still have the practical business of football to address, from how each program plans to build for the fall to what leaders say about the developing identity of the league. Texas, as the host state and a central media market, will naturally draw particular attention, and with the event happening at the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility, the Big 12 will be leaning into a “big-league” presentation to match the moment.

What to watch next is how league leaders and Texas Tech representatives handle the gap between legal reality and football planning. Media days often function as a soft reset, but this year’s reset may be constrained, especially if reporters keep pushing for clarity on what comes next from the NCAA, the conference, and the quarterback’s path. The more the Big 12 can move the conversation toward roster development and season goals, the more it can blunt the sense that this has become an off-field defining feature of the league’s summer.

Key questions in the short term will be whether the Big 12 can translate its playoff expansion advocacy into something more than a talking point and whether it can keep the member institutions aligned while the Sorsby matter remains a lingering point of friction. That balance will likely determine how confidently the conference sells its product in a high-visibility week just before fall football preparations solidify.