Report: Tyler Buchner to pursue lacrosse, hasn't ruled out return to football

Tyler Buchner has entered the NCAA transfer portal — but surprisingly, not for football. The now former Alabama quarterback will be pursuing lacrosse.

To clear up the confusion on the situation, ESPN senior writer Pete Thamel elaborated on Buchner’s situation and what could be next for the former four-star recruit.

“A source close to Buchner said he’s expected to explore his lacrosse options this spring,” Thamel wrote on X. “He was considered one of the top lacrosse recruits in the country while in high school. He hasn’t ruled out a return to football, but is expected to explore lacrosse in the immediate future.”

Buchner made one start for the Crimson Tide at quarterback this season, which resulted in a 17-3 victory for Alabama over USF. He finished the season with 61 passing yards as Jalen Milroe’s backup.

Before Alabama, he spent two seasons at Notre Dame. While Buchner spent his first season with the program backing up Jack Coan, he still passed for 298 yards and three touchdowns in limited action.

After Coan moved on to the NFL, Buchner was forced to deal with a litany of changes, as Notre Dame leader Brian Kelly jetted for the LSU Tigers. While he still captured the starting gig to begin the season under then first-year head coach Marcus Freeman’s watch, Buchner dealt with a myriad of injuries that led to backup quarterback Drew Pyne leading the Fighting Irish for the bulk of the 2022 season and Buchner moving on to Tuscaloosa.

Buchner is a former four-star recruit out of Helix (CA) who was a member of the 2021 recruit cycle, and was the No. 94 overall recruit in the nation at the time, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.

o keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.