Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner plans to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

Notre Dame quarterback Tyler Buchner plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, per On3’s Matt Zenitz.

The news comes the Fighting Irish landed former Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman out of the portal earlier this offseason, and he’s protected to be the team’s starting quarterback in 2023. Evidently, Buchner would rather take his talents to a different program where he has a chance to reignite his starting career, and prove he’s the talented signal caller Notre Dame recruited.

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 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.

Nevertheless, Buchner returned before the end of the campaign, and was actually named the MVP of the 2022 Gator Bowl, which Notre Dame won over the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Now, after watching his offensive coordinator Tommy Rees take his talents to Alabama, Buchner will look to play elsewhere in 2023. It remains to be seen which teams will be in the mix, but his combination of talent and football intelligence make him a fascinating prospect to watch.

Tyler 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 weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel provided the first report of Buchner’s decision on Tuesday, April 25.

To 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.