Colorado DL's eligibility fight isn't over yet

Ezra Christensen's path to college football has been anything but normal. He grew up in an orphanage in Sierra Leone, was adopted at 16 with zero knowledge of American football or how NCAA eligibility clocks work, then had his high school senior season wiped out by the pandemic before he ever got real guidance on the rules. He started his career at two-year San Diego Mesa College, bounced to Fresno State for two seasons, then broke out at New Mexico State in 2025 with 11 tackles for loss, 6 sacks and First Team All-CUSA honors. This offseason he transferred to Colorado. Then the NCAA's new age-based, five-year eligibility rule torched his waiver request, and instead of suiting up for the Buffaloes he ended up in a Boulder County courtroom.

Christensen's attorneys tried to fast-track a fix with an ex parte temporary restraining order, essentially asking a judge to immediately block the NCAA from enforcing the ruling without waiting to hear the other side. That request got denied on 2026-07-22, which opens the door for the NCAA to formally respond.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Colorado DL Ezra Christensen's ex parte TRO has been denied, per court docs, allowing the NCAA to respond. A hearing is being scheduled in the near future for his preliminary injunction request. t.co/jIItjK9tVV

That's a much less dramatic outcome than it sounds. Ex parte TROs are a high bar by design, they're meant for true emergencies where there's no time to hear both sides, and they get denied constantly even in cases that ultimately go the athlete's way. The next real checkpoint is the preliminary injunction hearing, where both Christensen's camp and the NCAA will actually argue the merits in front of a judge.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

This is standard, and many judges have ruled for players after denying an ex parte TRO.

That distinction matters because the last few years have been full of college athletes winning these exact fights. As NIL money and the transfer portal have blown up the value of an extra season, waiver denials tied to the five-year clock have increasingly ended up in front of judges, and plenty of those judges have sided with the player once they actually heard the full case. Denying the emergency ask while scheduling a real hearing is basically the legal system saying "not so fast" rather than "no."

The clock is the real pressure here. Colorado opens its 2026 season against Georgia Tech in a matter of weeks, and every day this drags through the courts is a day the Buffaloes don't know if their disruptive transfer defensive lineman will be allowed to line up. If the preliminary injunction hearing goes Christensen's way, he could be back on the field in Boulder despite the NCAA's initial denial. If it doesn't, Colorado loses a proven pass rusher right before kickoff. Either way, this one's headed for a real courtroom fight, not a quiet dismissal.