ESPN’s Jay Bilas: Expect the Brendan Sorsby Ruling to be Overturned on Appeal

Jay Bilas expects the Brendan Sorsby ruling to be overturned on appeal because the NCAA can win the legal fight even if it lost the first round. That was the ESPN analyst's verdict when he joined Rich to break down the three-page order out of Lubbock, Texas, that has college sports in an uproar.

"It was a three-page order from the judge in Texas and it was immediately appealed by the NCAA and I think it'll get overturned on appeal," Bilas said. He called it "a pretty odd ruling," a preliminary injunction now headed to a three-judge panel in Amarillo. "I just can't imagine that standing up."

His reasoning is the legal standard itself. To win a preliminary injunction, Bilas explained, a player has to show both irreparable harm and a likelihood of success at trial. He'll grant Sorsby the first part. The second is where he sees the case fall apart. "I don't think there's any likelihood that he would win at trial."

That includes the argument from Jeffrey Kessler and his co-counsel that Sorsby's gambling was a mental health issue. Bilas heard it and isn't moved. "To me that's not, that wouldn't win the day if I were deciding the case."

Rich pushed on exactly that point, asking why a mental-illness defense wouldn't open the door for any athlete to dodge a suspension. Bilas's answer was that making the argument and winning it are two different things. "You can make the argument. It doesn't mean the argument's going to be a winning one. So this is one judge in Texas that put out a three-page order that I don't think's going to hold up. That's sort of the point."

He also pushed back on the panic. The reaction, he said, jumped straight to "the world is on fire" instead of "all right, we need to appeal this, and we'll win on appeal." It's one player, the season doesn't start tomorrow, and to Bilas it doesn't justify the NCAA's bigger ask for an antitrust exemption from Congress.

His precedent was Charles Bediako, the player who suited up at Alabama last year. "Way too many people lost their minds over it over one court ruling that got appealed and overturned and the whole thing was over." On the day Bediako returned, Bilas noted, three freshmen scored over 40 in a game nobody discussed. "It just made no sense."

The takeaway from the counselor: let the appeal run its course.