Court order gives Braxton Fely something Oklahoma’s other fifth-year lineman still lacks

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Court order gives Braxton Fely something Oklahoma’s other fifth-year lineman still lacks

Olamilekan Ajayi · Gridiron Heroics

Fri, Sep 4, 2026 ·

3 min read

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Braxton Fely has been granted a temporary restraining order giving him a fifth season of eligibility and clearance to enter the transfer portal, Pete Nakos of On3 reported on Thursday. Court documents say the former Boise State defensive tackle plans to play at Oklahoma this season.

Fely started 40 of 42 games on Boise State's interior line over three seasons and was a second-team All-Mountain West selection in both 2024 and 2025. He put up 24 tackles, nine of them for loss, and 5.5 sacks in 2024, the year the Broncos won the Mountain West and reached the College Football Playoff.

USATSI 27115295 1 scaled — Sep 13, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; A view of an Oklahoma Sooners helmet during the game against the Temple Owls at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Ross-Imagn Images

He went undrafted in April and took NFL rookie minicamp invitations over the spring. When a Colorado ruling reopened the college route at the end of July, Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said he had been in regular contact with Fely and cornerback Jeremiah Earby about coming back, with fall camp already at the door. "If it's going to happen, it's going to have to happen here soon," Danielson said , and neither player returned to Boise.

Why one Oklahoma fifth-year lineman can play and another cannot

The Sooners are already carrying a fifth-year defensive tackle in the same predicament. Danny Saili committed in August after U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney ruled that high school class of 2022 athletes who had used up their eligibility were covered by the NCAA's new five-for-five model, which grants five seasons in five years. The 10th Circuit stayed that ruling soon after, and Saili has been practicing in Norman without clearance to play in games.

USATSI 24116235 scaled e1725068836542 — Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables stands on the sidelines in the first half of an NCAA football game between Oklahoma (OU) and Temple at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.

Brent Venables confirmed the arrangement on Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference, saying the Arkansas transfer "has been added to the roster, and he's currently practicing." Saili is listed on Oklahoma's Week 1 roster all the same.

Fely's order came out of an Oklahoma court and covers him individually, which is the whole difference. Saili's eligibility rides on a class-wide injunction that an appeals court has paused, and until that stay lifts he is a practice player. Both would sit in the same position room this week, and what separates them comes down to where each case was filed.

Signing Saili took Oklahoma's final roster spot and put the Sooners at 111 players , the same number they carried into last season. Venables has depth in front of both of them, with Jayden Jackson , David Stone , Bishop Thomas, Trent Wilson and Nigel Smith II already established in the rotation, so Fely would arrive as a veteran addition rather than a fix.

The NCAA has appealed the rulings that produced this wave of fifth-year cases, including the Colorado injunction, and a temporary restraining order holds only until a court takes the question up again. No. 10 Oklahoma opens against UTEP on Friday at 8 p.m. ET at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

Why one Oklahoma fifth-year lineman can play and another cannot

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