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Texas Tech football became embroiled in national controversy this week when transfer quarterback Brendan Sorsby entered a gambling addiction rehabilitation center.
The program is now facing new controversy, after one of its major donors has sparked a different kind of controversy in recent months.
Texas Tech alumnus Cody Campbell, a prominent energy industry billionaire and Republican Party donor, told Pak Gazette Digital in an interview Friday, three days before news broke of Sorsby’s entry into gambling addiction treatment, that he is “concerned” about the consistency and enforcement of what is and isn’t allowed in college sports.
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Cody Campbell is on the field after the Big 12 championship game between Texas Tech and BYU at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on December 6, 2025. (John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
“I’m concerned about consistency and enforcement. I’m concerned about, you know, the difficulty that schools have navigating the rules. I mean, most schools don’t even know what the rules are. It’s not clear what’s legal and what’s not legal,” Campbell said when asked if he’s concerned about the current state of oversight at the NCAA.
“I mean, I think the entire governance model right now in college sports is completely broken and ineffective. Nobody has the authority or the ability to enforce any rules right now.”
Campbell had no further comment after news of Sorsby’s rehabilitation broke.
Campbell got into a heated debate with Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark earlier this month over moving a Texas Tech football game to Friday night, which Campbell publicly called “absurd.” Yormark publicly stated that Campbell “does not run the Big 12” and reminded him that conference decisions are made by officials, not boosters.
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Cody Campbell stands backstage during ESPN’s College GameDay at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, on Nov. 8, 2025. (John E. Moore III/Getty Images)
Campbell addressed his relationship with conference commissioners in Friday’s interview with Pak Gazette Digital.
“The commissioners, you know, I get along better with some of them than others,” he said.
“You know, it seems like some people think there might be an advantage to not having anything happen so that the chaos persists because some conferences, well, I should say some members of some conferences have benefited from the chaos. And so maybe some people don’t want anything to happen.
“I also have a problem with a commissioner or anyone else who doesn’t care about all the benefits that come from college sports and is only interested in preserving their own position of power or, you know, the big salary they receive.”
Campbell, a Republican who says he is aligned with President Donald Trump’s vision of “saving college sports” through NIL and transfer portal regulation, admitted he has been criticized for some of his philosophical beliefs about the governance of college sports.
Campbell, who has been the focus of multiple ESPN profile articles in recent months as a figure who wants to help in the effort to “save college sports,” admits that he has also been criticized for his attempted intervention in college sports as a whole, as a booster for a single school.
“I mean, yes, I mean, of course I do,” Campbell said when asked if he had been criticized for his belief in strict regulation on NIL and the transfer portal.
“But people who say those kinds of things don’t understand that, you know, the vast majority of the funds that will subsidize these massive deficits, the vast majority of the money that goes to support our universities comes from taxpayer money. Also, the majority of the institutions that we’re talking about here, the vast majority are already publicly owned. They’re not private entities.”
Campbell believes that unlike the energy industry, college sports “is not a free market.”
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The Big 12 logo and scoreboard are displayed at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, before the game between Texas Tech and BYU on December 6, 2025. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
“This is not the same as a private company like mine, which is owned by individuals,” Campbell said.
“This is not a free market. This is a government-subsidized program that essentially aims to provide opportunity, provide social mobility and provide leadership development for the entire country.”
