📰🏟️ CFB betting scandal

Good afternoon. Welcome back to another week full of top sports stories. Let’s get you up to speed.

—Kyle

1) Texas Tech’s star QB enters gambling rehab

Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby, the #1-ranked transfer portal player this offseason, is taking an “indefinite” leave of absence from the team as he enters a gambling addiction treatment program.

• The move comes amid an NCAA investigation into "thousands of online bets” placed by Sorsby.
• They reportedly include wagers on Indiana while Sorsby was redshirting there as a freshman in 2022, as well as a large number of bets—mostly small, $1 wagers—on various sports.
• The NCAA has typically deemed players permanently ineligible for betting on their own team’s games.
• USA Today reported that Cincinnati—where Sorsby played the past 2 seasons—“was alerted” to Sorsby’s betting ahead of the 2025 season, and could face NCAA sanctions.

What you need to know

2) Flagg beats out Knueppel for top NBA rookie

Mavericks teen superstar Cooper Flagg narrowly beat out his former roommate at Duke, Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel, to win NBA Rookie of the Year last night.

• Flagg earned 56 first-place votes versus 44 for Knueppel, with the 19-year-old Mavericks star becoming the 2nd-youngest RoY winner behind LeBron James.
• Flagg averaged 21.0 pts, 6.7 rebs, and 4.5 assists last season—joining Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Luka Dončić as the only rookies to reach those marks since the NBA-ABA merger 50 years ago.

Flagg captures the trophy

3) Ex-Alabama DT convicted of impersonating NFL players

Luther Davis, a 37-y.o. former Alabama DT, pleaded guilty this week to defrauding investors out of millions of dollars, in part by putting on makeup and wigs to impersonate NFL players.

• Davis wore disguises on multiple video calls with investors in 2024 to impersonate 3 different NFL players, and also had fake driver’s licenses made.
• According to The Guardian, he pretended to be Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr., former Browns TE David Njoku, and Packers S Xavier McKinney.
• The scheme allegedly brought in ~$20M from at least 13 fraudulent loans before being uncovered.

Inside the brazen fraud scheme

4) Phillies fire manager Rob Thomson amid slow start

Philadelphia announced this morning that Thomson will be replaced after 4.5 seasons at the helm, with veteran manager Don Mattingly serving as the interim option.

• The Phillies had the largest payroll in team history heading into this season, but their dismal 9-19 start is tied for the worst in baseball.
• Thomson leaves the Phillies with the highest winning percentage (.568) of any manager in franchise history.
• Mattingly’s hiring as interim marks the first time that a father and son—Phillies GM Preston Mattingly—have been manager and GM on the same MLB team.

The Phillies are phloundering

5) LIV Golf to postpone June event, per reports

LIV Golf’s June event in New Orleans has been postponed with the potential to reschedule this fall, per multiple local news outlets.

• LIV sources say the league is seeking to avoid peak summer heat, as well as any viewership conflicts with the World Cup.
• But other reports say the state of Louisiana is postponing the event until LIV can restructure financially and find additional sources of funding.
• The news comes weeks after Saudi Arabia’s gov’t reportedly pulled its funding for LIV Golf beyond this season.

Upstart league is LIV-ing on a prayer

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