OM DENNE EPISODE
On this episode of Conduct Detrimental: THE Sports Law Podcast, Dan Lust (@SportsLawLust) and Mike Kravchenko (Watch on YouTube) are back after a three-month hiatus — with stories spanning college sports' future, an expanding NBA gambling probe, an NFL kidnapping case, and one of the biggest sports-media stories in years.
After catching up on the time away — and a plan to bring back long-form guest interviews — Dan and Mike open with the Brendan Sorsby saga, the most consequential college-sports story of the offseason. They trace the whole arc: Sorsby's roughly $90,000 in bets (including on his own Indiana team), the NCAA's permanent ineligibility ruling, Jeffrey Kessler's state-court injunction in Lubbock, the Big 12's federal suit to preserve its right to punish Texas Tech, and the NFL's decision not to hold a supplemental draft at all — leaving Sorsby out of football for 2026 on every front. Dan explains why this was nearly a "watershed moment" for state-versus-federal court chaos, and the "home court advantage" problem of athletes shopping NCAA disputes to friendly local judges.
From there, the duo zooms out to the bigger college-sports picture: the NCAA's new age-based eligibility model, adopted June 23 — five seasons in five years, with the clock starting at enrollment or the year after an athlete turns 19. Dan and Mike break down the wave of challenges already filed (including Campbell v. NCAA and 50-plus basketball players from the 2022 class), and how the Protect College Sports Act and a Trump executive order fit into a five-year NIL era that still has no federal law.
Dan and Mike then turn to the gambling and pro-sports bucket, with Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold, charged in Florida with armed robbery, kidnapping, and conspiracy.
Followed by Malik Beasley, indicted in the Eastern District of New York on four counts alongside Ed Davis. Dan and Mike get into the point-shaving theory, the unsealed text messages, why a $60M-career player joining Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups makes this so alarming, and how this is now a federal case the NBA can't sweep away.
The episode closes with the Dianna Russini story. With The Athletic's investigation looming and a new New York Times piece reigniting it, Dan walks through the Mike Vrabel reporting, the dual denials, and the defamation lawsuit that — tellingly — neither party ever filed. Dan and Mike turn it into a broader ethics conversation about honesty, owning mistakes, and what it means that Russini referred to herself as a "former journalist."
Plus, in "What to Watch For," Mike flags the MLBPA's proposed prop-bet ban as the most important betting story of the back half of the year — and Dan shares a (very on-brand) World Cup story from the home front.
Let us know your thoughts!
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As always, this episode is sponsored by Themis Bar Review: https://www.themisbarsocial.com/conductdetrimental
Host: Dan Lust (@SportsLawLust)
Featuring: Mike Kravchenko (Watch on YouTube)
Produced by: Mike Kravchenko (Watch on YouTube)
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