Texas Tech chair donated $275K to Ken Paxton day before AG intervened in Brendan Sorsby gambling saga

https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/15/cody-campbell-ken-paxton-donation-brendan-sorsby-texas-tech/


Last month, Attorney General Ken Paxton waded into the explosive college football saga involving Brendan Sorsby, the Texas Tech University quarterback who had admitted to placing thousands of improper sports bets, including on his own team’s games, resulting in the NCAA declaring him ineligible to play.

In a June 11 letter, Paxton’s office warned the Big 12 Conference on behalf of Texas Tech that any move to sanction the university for fielding Sorsby would be “unlawful” and potentially expose it to $200 million in damages.

One day before he sent that letter, Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell, one of Sorsby’s most public defenders, donated $274,300 to a fundraising committee supporting Paxton in his bid for U.S. Senate, according to campaign finance records newly filed with the Federal Election Committee Wednesday.

Campbell declined to comment on the record for this story. Paxton’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment or to questions about whether Paxton indicated to Campbell that his office would send the letter if he made the donation. Texas Tech also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Campbell, a former Texas Tech lineman who has donated at least $25 million to the school’s athletics program, was appointed to the board of regents in 2021 and became chair in 2025. Throughout Sorsby’s eligibility drama, Campbell and Texas Tech vocally defended his right to play, casting him as a student in recovery from addiction and his situation the “outcome of a broken system.”