Lubbock Avalanche-Journal’s Gabriel Monte reported that District Judge Phillip Hays recused himself from the Breandan Sorsby lawsuit:

Hays’ recusal means Judge Anna Estevez will have to appoint a judge to hear the case. Estevez presides over the 9th Administrative Judicial Region, which includes Lubbock.

I don’t have a ton to write about this other than yeah, this makes sense and I would have made the same decision. I remember mocking the “breaking” story that came out that Judge Hays would be hearing the case and all I could think about was congrats on your story about venue and jurisdiction.

CBS Sports’ Shehan Jeyarajah adjusts his post-spring power rankings and moves Texas Tech down to No. 2 with BYU replacing them at No. 1:

The Red Raiders had the worst offseason of any Big 12 team after losing quarterback Brendan Sorsby to a gambling investigation. But with the quality of players coming back, the Red Raiders are still — at worst — co-favorites. Defensively, Texas Tech is the class of the conference after adding a stacked defensive line class via the portal. The offensive line could be one of the nation’s best. If quarterback Will Hammond progresses as expected from injury, Texas Tech will be back at No. 1 by the fall. Odds: +110

There was a point where I would scour Athlon Sports for stories on Texas Tech, but in the course of a year they have become a content farm that’s sort of a shell of what it previously was, emphasizing content over quality. Regardless, Athlon Sports did release their annual anonymous conference coaches and it’s much shorter than it has been in the past and not necessarily insightful:

“(Brendan Sorsby) is not gonna be able to play, no matter what they say. There’s no way because once you open Pandora’s Box, it’s over.”

I think most realistic fans agree that it is probably over, but stranger things have happened. Heck, go check out LSU’s current recruiting in basketball where they essentially have a professional Euroleague team rather than a college basketball team.

“It’s hard every year when you recruit the portal. Obviously, last year, they hit on all four of those D-linemen. Are they really gonna do that every year? I mean, that’s hard.”

I think that head coach Joey McGuire has stated that he knows that they can’t rely on the portal like they have last year, hence the focus on recruiting last year and the 2027 class.

“(Backup QB) Will Hammond is talented, but we all know with an ACL, it takes a long time to recover.”

Again, this is true and I’ve typed the same thing. I don’t think this is insightful.

“I think they’re still ultra-talented, so they can still (win the Big 12). It’s just not gonna be easy. To me, it was BYU vs. Texas Tech for the Big 12 championship. Can you say that now? I don’t know.”

Yeah, sure. BYU is likely going to be pretty good and so is Texas Tech.