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Gators tight end Tony Livingston entering transfer portal

On3 imageby: Keith Niebuhr01/11/26NiebuhrOn3

Florida Gators tight end Tony Livingston, who made five starts last season, announced Sunday via social media he is entering transfer portal.

As a junior in 2025, Livingston played in 10 games. He had 11 receptions for 119 yards and two touchdowns. For his Gators career, he made six starts and finished with 23 catches for 232 yards and four touchdowns.

In the past week, Florida has added two tight end transfers. Saturday, they landed Georgia Tech transfer Luke Harpring. On Jan. 5, James Madison transfer Lacota Dippre committed.

Meanwhile, UF is bringing back rising redshirt sophomore Amir Jackson and redshirt freshman Micah Jones. Additionally, they signed 4-star recruit Heze Kent in the 2026 class.

With Livingston on the way out, that means UF will be replacing its top two tight ends from 2025. The other, Hayden Hansen, is headed to Oklahoma.

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 window for FBS players to enter the portal opened Jan. 2 and closes on Jan. 16.