Nebraska playmaker Will Nixon announces commitment to Pac-12 program

The Washington Huskies have landed a transfer via the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Wednesday afternoon, with wide receiver/running back Will Nixon announcing he will be heading to the Pacific Northwest via Twitter. He marks the seventh transfer new head coach Kalen DeBoer has brought in since taking over the program.

Prior to being able to play a game as a true freshman, Nixon tore his ACL and missed the entire 2020 season. Nixon worked his way back to play the following season where he appeared in three games. Only one reception was recorded on the year, having five yards against the Northwestern Wildcats.

Although Nixon is also going to Washington to play running back, he did not record a carry while in Lincoln.

Coming out of high school, Nixon was rated a three-star prospect according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services. He was listed as a wide receiver from Waco Midway High School and was a top 100 player within the state of Texas.

Nixon took a few visits before originally committing to Nebraska, seeing the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and Purdue Boilermakers.

According to the On3 transfer portal rankings, Nixon ranked as the No. 100 wide receiver in the cycle. Now, he will also be classified as a running back for the Huskies, having a few different roles in the offense going forward.

Transfer portal background information for Washington, Nixon, Nebraska Cornhuskers

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.