Welcome Back to the Tradition's Finest Podcast! Episode 140 - The "Reign Man" Episode includes a discussion of the following sports-related topics: NCAA: News & Storylines - - NCAA College Football: "The Saga Continues:" The Big 12 on Monday morning made it clear it did not want to be pushed around in court in the case surrounding Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby. .and it seems to have worked: Hours before sources told ESPN Monday night that Sorsby plans to enter the NFL Supplemental Draft, a decision later confirmed by a university statement, the Red Raiders' conference filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas seeking both a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief to allow the league the authority to use its bylaws to potentially punish Sorsby, who admitted to betting on college sports - - Sorsby's and TTU's decision to “mutually part ways” should quell the conference's concerns for the time being. . .Q: What are your thoughts on QB Brendan Sorsby & Texas Tech University mutually parting ways following this media spectacle? - - The Big 12, a league won by Texas Tech last season, was chief among those critics, as Monday's move by the conference was a legal counter to a letter from Texas attorney general last week, which warned that any sanctions imposed by the Big 12 would be “unlawful” and countered by legal action, with the Texas AG, Kenneth Paxton, listed as a defendant, along with the chancellor, president and AD of Texas Tech - - This all played out in the wake of a judge granting Sorsby a temporary injunction on June 8 that essentially cleared the way for him to play for Texas Tech in 2026 - that came after Sorsby admitted that he broke NCAA rules by betting thousands of times, including 40 times on Indiana football while he was on that team's roster - - Before Sorsby's decision to leave the Red Raiders, the Big 12's presidents met Monday to discuss potential punishments with no definitive outcome - - The Big 12's federal suit included a request for an injunction to allow the league to enforce its own rules - and at the heart of this was Big 12 Bylaw 3:6, which allows the league via a supermajority vote to decide whether Texas Tech's conduct warrants sanctions: The suit sought to bar Texas Tech from “seeking to deter, coerce, prevent, or punish the Big 12 for exercising its rights under its Bylaws to sanction TTU related to its handling of the sports betting activity discussed in this Complaint, including if TTU fields a student-athlete in Big 12 competitions who has engaged in collegiate sports betting activity.” - - The measures discussed by the Big 12 executive committee last week in a call included both financial penalties to the school and penalties related to eligibility, as the Big 12's filing alludes to barring the school from the conference championship game as a potential sanction – The suit also acknowledged the near unanimity in the college athletics industry that Sorsby should not be allowed to play and mentioned bans on playing Texas Tech by the athletic departments at Georgia and Nebraska - as the suit was a highly unusual action from a conference and it came amid a volatile situation: Big 12 ADs were outspoken, both publicly and in meetings, in saying they don't want to Sorsby to play - - For the first time since 2019, the NFL supplemental draft is interesting!. . .Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby has announced his intention to enter the supplemental draft, which will be held sometime in July once the league approves his application: The supplemental draft allows all 32 teams to bid blindly against one another for the rights to a player – Any team wishing to add Sorsby must submit a bid for the round in which it would be willing to draft him, as the team that submits the most valuable bid wins the rights to the player, but its pick in that specific round is forfeited in the upcoming 2027 NFL Draft - - As such, NFL teams are now doing all of their due diligence on Sorsby: A much-larger-than-normal piece of that diligence will consider his serious sports gambling transgressions, but it's still the job of scouts and coaches to watch the tape and grade his current play and NFL potential - as league evaluators were excited to see Sorsby play another season at Texas Tech; even if he had declared for the 2026 draft, before the sports gambling was exposed, he was considered a high-ceiling prospect worthy of a solid pick. . .Q: Do you think that an NFL franchise will use their draft pick to select QB Brendan Sorsby in this year's Supplemental Draft? If so, which NFL franchise or franchises might take the risk & draft Sorsby?. . .NCAA College Baseball: Bracket #1: Men's College World Series Game #11/Semifinals: No.5 North Carolina Tar Heels (2-0) vs. No.16 West Virginia Mountaineers (1-1) - - The Tar Heels exploded for 12 runs, jumping out to a 12-1 lead and holding off No.16 West Virginia, 12-7, to advance to the championship series of the College World Series on Wednesday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field - - **NOTE: With the victory, their fifth in a row, the Tar Heels advanced to the CWS championship series for the third time and the first time in 19 seasons, joining the 2006 and 2007 squads -- They improved to 3-0 in games to send themselves to the championship finals, as the final, best-of-three (3) series for the NCAA championship will begin in Omaha on Saturday on ESPN - - **NOTE: UNC has started 3-0 in the CWS for the first time since beginning 4-0 in 2006 and is a scorching 8-1 in the 2026 NCAA Tournament - - Carolina scored eight (8) runs in the first four (4) innings to take control early and allowed only run through 6.2 innings, whereas WVU scored five (5) in the bottom of the 7th and added another in the 8th, but Caden Glauber slammed the door by striking out three (3) and allowing just one run in 2.1 innings of relief to finish the game - - **NOTE: Carolina's 12 runs were its most since scoring 13 against Pitt on May 23 in the ACC Tournament - - as the Mountaineers had allowed only a combined 10 runs in their first three (3) games in Omaha prior to Wednesday - - UNC improved to 53-12-1 with the victory and has won 17 of its last 20 games, whereas the Mountaineers saw their season come to an abrupt end at 47-17 - - Owen Hull went 4-for-5 at the plate with two doubles and two RBIs to set the tone for the Tar Heels. . .Q: What are your thoughts on the No.5 North Carolina Tar Heels advancing to the Men's College World Series best-of-three championship series?. . .. . .Bracket #2: Men's College World Series #12/Semifinals: No.3 Georgia Bulldogs (1-1) vs. Oklahoma Sooners (2-0) - - Freshman pitcher shutting down maybe the nation's most potent lineup. . .Check!. . .HRs by the record-setting handful?. . .Check!. . .Otherworldly defensive genius with the leather?. . .Check! - - Oklahoma's unlikely run at the College World Series continued on Wednesday night at Charles Schwab Field as the Sooners emphatically eliminate No.3 national seed Georgia 11-4 - - OU (41-22) hit five (5) HRs, got another startingly precocious performance on the hill and layered in plenty of fabulous defense to shut down the Bulldogs (53-14) and advance to the CWS Championship Series for the second time in a five-year stretch - as Oklahoma will play No.5 North Carolina (53-12-1) in a best-of-three (3) series starting Saturday - - Oklahoma won its eighth game in a row - and barely gave the crowd of 24,446 time to catch their breath before another Sooner smacked a ball over the fence - - But it was fellow freshman pitcher Nick Wesloski, who was up to the challenge of taking down the Bulldogs despite the lack of starting experience this season - as his only other start on the college level was two weeks ago in the Atlanta regional against The Citadel, when he threw 105 pitches over seven (7) innings and gave up five (5) runs on six (6) hits and a pair of walks - and picked up his first collegiate win - - When the red-hot OU hitters staked him to a four-run lead early, Wesloski was able to relax, settle in and find the strike zone without much trouble - - Jason Walk enjoyed his first career two-HR game, Dasan Harris had his second, and Trey Gambill homered as well, his 11th - as Walk & Harris had hit just four (4) HRs all season, but they lived beyond the wall against Georgia's pitching. . .Q: What are your thoughts on the College World Series best-of-three (3) championship series between No.5 UNC and Oklahoma? Who do you predict to win this series?. . . - NFL - - Former NFL DL Aldon Smith has died in the Bay Area at the age of 36, the San Francisco 49ers announced and confirmed on Saturday afternoon, however, there was no cause of death given - - Smith played six (6) seasons in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders and Dallas Cowboys, as the Niners selected him with the No.7 overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft: Once viewed as one of the NFL's top young players, Smith's star-crossed career ended in 2020 after one season with the Cowboys - - As a rookie, Smith burst on the scene with 14 sacks and 27 QB hits on his way to finishing second in Defensive Rookie of the Year balloting - - He followed with his best NFL season in 2012, posting 19.5 sacks and 29 QB hits as he earned Pro Bowl and All-Pro honors - as those 19.5 sacks still stand as a 49ers' franchise record for a single season - - Smith's rapid ascent to NFL stardom was slowed by a series...