NORMAN — Since the end of the 2025-26 season, countless court cases have decided whether or not certain athletes are eligible to play in the upcoming season.
The Sooners have been at the forefront of these discussions.
After the season, Oklahoma signed several players from the transfer portal. Two of them — center Duke Brennan and guard B.J. Edwards — had each played four seasons at different programs, putting their 2026-27 eligibility in question.
In July, a federal judge in Colorado ruled that athletes who graduated high school in 2022 would be eligible. Since then, there have been appeals attempting to overturn that ruling and make athletes like Brennan and Edwards ineligible.
Oklahoma coach Porter Moser believes that it’s common sense for fifth-year athletes to get one more year.
“I have very strong opinions about it,” Moser said. “I saved spots for this. I didn’t run anybody off — I would never do that to anybody.”
Moser became OU’s head coach in 2021, which was another period of great turmoil around the NCAA.
That was, of course, right after the COVID-19 pandemic. As a response to the shortened seasons and other twists that resulted from the pandemic, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to every student-athlete in every sport.
Because of how many college athletes were still eligible, fewer athletes from the Class of 2022 received scholarship offers out of high school, according to Moser.
Athletes from the 2022 class received the short end of that deal. And before the Colorado ruling in the 2026 summer, the NCAA adopted a “5-for-5” eligibility model in which student-athletes have five years to play five seasons.
“The year behind them got an extra year. The year in front of them got an extra year,” Moser said. “That class got hurt when they gave everybody a COVID year, which I thought was the right thing to do. But the right thing to do now… it could create less mental problems for these kids.”
Brennan is temporarily eligible for Oklahoma’s 2026-27 opener against East Texas A&M, while Edwards is not. The Sooners also hope to get forward Tae Davis — who spent his fourth collegiate season at OU last year — back, but he has not yet been cleared.
Brennan, who previously played at Villanova, Grand Canyon and Arizona State, admitted that the eligibility process has been taxing.
“I was always on Twitter,” Brennan said. “I knew a lot of different cases, a lot of different things that they said. And you had to keep up with it.”
Thankfully for the Sooners, they have plenty of leaders who have helped mitigate some of the stress.
Oklahoma retained guards Xzayvier Brown and Dayton Forsythe, forward Derrion Reid and center Kai Rogers after the 2025-26 season. According to Moser, that group has done a stellar job of keeping things at bay.
“Your leaders, you want them to model what you stand for,” Moser said. “(Brown) and (Reid) both, I’ve seen it, really, in their voices.”
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