Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule celebrates major NCAA Transfer Portal change

Zain Bando

Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule celebrates major NCAA Transfer Portal change image

© Lucas Peltier-Imagn Images

The Nebraska Cornhuskers are one of the Big Ten's biggest surprise teams as they continue to build momentum from last season's bowl-winning team.

Even with the vastly unexpected turnaround, coach Matt Rhule has done anything but sugarcoat his feelings about the NCAA Transfer Portal, let alone the College Football Playoff.

With the transfer portal's recent changes aimed at creating a singular window, Rhule appears to be in full support.

“Thank goodness," Rhule told reporters Thursday. "I mean, I want kids to have a chance to transfer if they’re unhappy, if they’re not in the right setup. So I want them to have that. But two portal windows, I mean, it’s just torture. To me, the season’s over, you set your year for the next year and then you build your team, right? And for the players, they set where they’re going and they build their team. The thing about transferring, if a kid wants to transfer, they’re probably going to go in the portal the first couple days. They’re going to go on day one, day two."

Rhule added that there are too many factors that suggest the transfer portal has glaring holes that need work.

"What happens is that, teams lose a guy or they thought they were getting so-and-so and he goes somewhere else, and then they go and they try to convince people to go in the portal to fix their needs," Rhule said. 

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Nonetheless, though, progress is progress. Rhule speaking up about it, alongside the likes of Ohio State coach Ryan Day, among others, is the beginning of the next wave in college football.

For now, only time will tell whether Rhule's remarks end up holding suit in the long run.

As for the team itself, Rhule's Cornhuskers host Houston Christian with kickoff set for noon ET Saturday.

Zain Bando

Zain Bando is a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. Over the years, Bando has written about various beats surrounding Illinois, Northwestern, and Kansas State Athletics but sticks to the Big Ten as his primary expertise. Outside of collegiate reporting, Bando covers MMA and boxing for MMA Knockout On Sports Illustrated and hosts/co-hosts two podcasts as part of the Empty The Bench Podcast Network – Bando's Breakdowns and The MMA Outsiders, which air weekly on YouTube and are distributed on all podcast platforms Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons. Bando is a Chicago Suburban native and a member of the FWAA and USBWA, continuing to hone his professional skills as a sports journalist and media personality. Since June 2019, Bando's byline has been featured in numerous media outlets, including MSN, Yardbarker, Deadspin, FanSided, BJPenn.com, Bridge Media Network (Sports News Highlights), Mike Farrell Sports, Reuters, and more. When Bando is not writing, he binges on old UFC fights, spends time with family and friends, memorizes every Super Bowl, and manifests all the places he still has to travel to (even while bringing his laptop).