Z.B

College sports and Seattle Mariners.

[David McKenzie @mckenzielaw]

The Big 12 has gone to federal court to ask permission to have a conviction. There was a time when a conference could simply disapprove of a player who bet on his own team's games. Now it needs a declaratory judgment first.

The Texas AG's threatening letter to the Big 12 was an unforced error of the first order. Strip it out and there's no lawsuit— because there's no justiciable controversy. A conference privately mulling a sanctions vote isn't a "case"; it's a meeting. The AG's 200M per se antitrust threat is what manufactured the ripeness, handed the Big 12 its MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc hook, and let Sidley walk into federal court in Dallas with a complaint instead of a press release. Paxton's office didn't just pick a fight— it wrote the other side's standing argument for them, then signed it. Now TTU and the AG get to defend a theory the Oklahoma AG already called "facially absurd," in a real courtroom, against a national firm on its home turf. The letter was meant to intimidate. It functioned as service of process.

The complaint itself is well made, and its strongest section is also its most dangerous. Paragraphs 32 through 36 are devastating on TTU's hypocrisy: TTU voted for the Baylor sanctions in 2017 and now insists the conference has no power to sanction anyone. That is good lawyering, and it should sting.

But it cuts both ways. Baylor was sanctioned after findings, through process, for institutional conduct. The Big 12 wants to sanction TTU preemptively, for fielding a player a Texas court has enjoined the NCAA from declaring ineligible.

The state court injunction is the elephant in the room, and paragraph 62 works very hard not to look at it— "this isn't about the injunction." But it is. The District Court of Lubbock County enjoined the NCAA from barring Brendan Sorsby from practicing or playing for Texas Tech, on a 5K bond, through a trial not set until February 2027. The practical effect is that Sorsby plays the entire 2026 season. The Big 12 now asks a federal court to declare that it may bar Texas Tech from competing for letting him. Strip away the labels, and the conference is asking one sovereign's courts to restore the very exclusion another sovereign's court just lifted—relabeled, from "NCAA eligibility" to "conference governance," but identical in result.

That's a real trap, and it is structural. Federal and state courts keep a wary distance from one another's orders; neither likes to be handed the other's ruling to undo. A federal court will rarely enjoin a state proceeding, and it is nearly as reluctant to grant relief that achieves the same end through the back. The Big 12 was shrewd to choose a declaratory judgment over an injunction— a softer vehicle that does not, on its face, touch the state order. But that shrewdness cuts both ways: declaratory relief is discretionary, and a federal judge may simply decline to issue a declaration whose only real function is to neutralize a state court's ruling. The conference says it is exercising independent governance authority. A skeptical judge may see a conference trying to do through the side door what a state court has barred the NCAA from doing through the front— and may decline to hold the door.

The Big 12 should win this, and it should win because the law is not actually close: a private association enforcing its own bylaws against a member who bet on his own games is ordinary self-governance. The Texas AG has managed the rare feat of threatening a lawsuit so weak that he walked his adversary into court, drew a public rebuke from a fellow attorney general within 24 hours, and turned a meeting the Big 12 might never have held into a federal complaint with his own letter stapled to the back as an Exhibit. Crazy times.

Thanks to @TomMarsLaw for making the complaint available.

[Z.B @G5defender]

@Kemosahbeh @Softykjr @jwhittenbergK5 Talking shit about Biden won’t get me riled up, I promise you. I have no idea who he hosted in the White House - I don’t pay attention to his gatherings. I didn’t watch the UFC last night because I’m not into UFC. I don’t care who’s in the house. Which is the point I was making.

[Z.B @G5defender]

@Softykjr @jwhittenbergK5 That’s lazy.

A lot of Americans just don’t like UFC, or any form of combat sport.

And will the next person in the White House be hosting a UFC event? Has any president ever? Maybe people - irrespective of who is in the house - don’t want this form of spectacle outside the house

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

“Michelle Obama is a man” shouted on the White House lawn in a ring sponsored by Bud Light only available on Larry Ellison’s Paramount Plus. What a way to celebrate America 250 and the twilight of liberal democracy.

[Z.B @G5defender]

@USAMBTurkiye The ambassador providing further evidence that America is a kakistocracy.

[mark normand @marknorm]

This looks like a Disney movie where a 12 year old becomes president

[Chris Vannini @ChrisVannini]

No better PR for walkable cities than the celebration videos coming out of New York.

[That Guy Rocked MLB @MLBGuyRocked]

Félix Hernández

That guy rocked.

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

SpaceX just went public. Elon Musk is using your retirement savings to become the world’s first trillionaire.

[Z.B @G5defender]

@RefuseToLosePod I’d love to buy you a beer and shoot the shit on our favorite 9.

[Z.B @G5defender]

@Black_King_Kev @Softykjr @jemelehill 😂 my mistake

[Z.B @G5defender]

@Softykjr @jemelehill People who are obsessed with Janelle Hill, positively or negatively, are weird.

[Brooks Austin @BrooksAustinBA]

Not that you need a PR team. You seem to be a “no one tells me what to do” guy.

But, I do think people were dumb enough to believe this charade of yours was all about “saving college sports” until the last 72 hours or so.

Now you just seem like a rich dude breaking stuff cause you can.

[Pablo Torre 👀 @PabloTorre]

James Dolan invited his friend Donald Trump to watch Game 3. In order to do that, they have to ban the organic, historically joyous parties happening outside MSG for fans who can't afford to be inside. Modern sports in a nutshell

[Z.B @G5defender]

@ByTimBooth The dumbest 9th inning I’ve seen in a long time.

[Tim Booth @ByTimBooth]

Odd how it suddenly came loose and flung forward at that moment. Weird. Strange.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

All the reports from the Platner rally, plus the videos circulating, show a raucous crowd and multiple standing ovations. The NYT calls it “relatively sedate.”

If you get your news from the Times, stop being stunned when events don’t turn out the way you think they will.

[Z.B @G5defender]

@WestCoastCFB This isn’t about obscurity, it’s about recognition: Chase Garber. One of my favorite opposing qb’s ever. Dawg mentality.