Florida Gators kicker Adam Mihalek enters transfer portal

Untitled designby:Nick de la Torre•11/26/23•

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida kicker Adam Mihalek announced his intentions to enter the transfer portal. Mihalek announced his intentions on X (formerly Twitter).

“I am grateful for my time as a Florida Gator in Gainesville. I want to thank Coach Napier and the entire staff for the opportunity at UF. It was a great experience to kick for the Gators. It has enriched my life in countless ways and I will carry those life lessons with me,” wrote Mihalek.

“I also want to thank my family for their amazing support and special tank you to all of my teammates, many of which I have no doubt will remain friends for life. I have decided to enter the transfer portal and look forward to my next opportunity. I will be entering the portal with 2 years of eligibility remaining.”

Mihalek converted 14-of-21 field goal attempts in 2022. The 66.7% success rate was the lowest for a Florida kicker since 2015 when Austin Hardin converted just 35.7% (5-of-14) field goal attempts. Mihalek has been much more consistent this fall. He won the starting job to begin the 2023 season but was replaced during Florida’s third game by Trey Smack.

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.

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