Since its creation in October 2018, the Transfer Portal has affected almost every sport and every university in the country, yet many people don’t know how it works. With NIL being a significant part of the Transfer Portal, things have become even more complex, leaving fans asking even more questions than before. So, I reached out to Brian Buschini, a former portal member, to ask him what his experience in the portal was like.
For Brian, entering the Transfer Portal wasn’t a difficult decision. He was just coming off an All-American season at the University of Montana. Still, the university wouldn’t grant him a scholarship due to a school policy that states specialists could not get scholarships. So, with coming off an All-American season and being freshly married, the decision to leave to play for a Power 5 school on scholarship was the best option. So, with his mind made up, Buschini went to the school’s compliance office to enter his name into the Transfer Portal.
While many athletes who enter the portal never find a new home, Buschini only took a few days to find one. On the first day in the portal, Brian received offers from multiple schools, such as Utah, Washington, and Oklahoma State, but only one school could check off all the boxes: Nebraska. From the education, the fans, the history of producing great punters, and the fact that he would likely start right away, Nebraska was clearly the right choice. After talking with Coach Frost and other members of the staff, Brian committed to Nebraska.
Brian would go on to start at Nebraska for the next three years and earn multiple honors and awards during his career, such as Honorable-Mention All-B1G, Academic All-B1G, and the B1G Special Teams Player of the Week for the week of October 7th, 2024. Today, Brian is preparing for the NFL Draft, where he hopes to hear his name called and live his dream of playing in the NFL. While we don’t know what the future holds, every Nebraska fan sure hopes to hear the “Buuuu” chants in NFL Stadiums across the country.