MSU Hosting Elite Ivy League WR on Transfer Visit
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The halfway point of the 2026 college football transfer portal window has arrived, and it’s hard to point to a more active team than Michigan State. Under new head coach Pat Fitzgerald, the Spartans have secured 15 commitments and are making progress with several of their other top targets.
One of those targets is a Yale transfer wide receiver who’s currently on campus in East Lansing for an official visit with the Spartans.
Yale Wide Reciever Transer Visits Michigan State
Fitzgerald and the Spartans are currently hosting Nico Brown, a wide receiver transfer from Yale, on campus for an official visit. Brown announced on X that he would be visiting Michigan State from Jan. 8 to Jan. 9, and his trip to East Lansing comes on the heels of visits with Northwestern and UCLA.
I will be visiting Michigan State January 8-9! pic.twitter.com/7cioFq47Jo
— Nico Brown (@nico_brown4) January 6, 2026
Brown is one of the most interesting players in the portal and has had a unique path to this point. He was a three-star recruit in the 2022 class from Edison High School in California and drew little interest from FBS programs. He ultimately committed to Yale and has spent the last four seasons with the Bulldogs.
His first three years at Yale were rough. He didn’t see the field much as a true freshman in 2022 and then missed the entire 2023 season due to an injury. In 2024, he again saw limited playing time, appearing in only three games.
However, in 2025, Brown finally got a chance and emerged as one of the top wide receivers at the FCS level. He hauled in 71 catches for 1,085 yards and 11 touchdowns, leading the Bulldogs in all categories and finishing with the third-most receiving yards in a single season in Yale history.
Brown entered the portal on Jan. 2 and has two years of eligibility remaining. He’d be a massive addition to a Michigan State offense that will be without its two most productive receivers from 2025 next season, with Nick Marsh transferring out and Omari Kelly out of eligibility.
Fitzgerald and his staff have targeted a few wide receivers in the portal, but have missed out on most of them. It’s a position the Spartans need to upgrade, and Brown would help them do just that. Rivals’ transfer portal rankings list the Yale transfer as a three-star prospect, the No. 302 overall player in the portal, and the No. 52 wide receiver.
The Spartans will have to beat out several other schools to land Brown, but with a good visit, there’s a strong chance he will be catching passes for Michigan State in 2026.
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Max Doresy serves as the Western United States College Recruiting Beat Writer On SI. He graduated from the prestigious Syracuse University – S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Before that, he worked for the Pro Football Network and was part of the recruiting department for Syracuse University's football program.