[Goose]

I agree that the bond the alums and fans for programs around the USA have for the players erodes if even more players move around.
This is bad for Stanford competitiveness for reasons fans on this board understand.
However, nationally this is so much better for the student-athletes.   If the program, coach, athletic facilities, academic resources, campus culture, area weather or any number of other things are just not meeting expectations, then a person should be allowed to transfer just like other students on campus.   And with players able to transfer it will mean coaches will need to treat their players with greater respect.

Athletes go to a coach at a school, only to discover the coach is leaving shortly after they enroll.
Some athletes take a chance and go to other parts of the USA only to discover it is too far from home.
Athletes have even been stuck when dealing with family illnesses at home, campus discrimination, coach abuse and other things.

I know this is likely a negative for Stanford's competitiveness and probably bad for the appeal of college programs.  Yet its benefits for the thousands of student-athletes nationwide are noteworthy.  That's too big of a benefit for me to still want to maintain the status-quo for Stanford Athletics.

I totally agree that athletes should be allowed to transfer for the same reasons other students transfer. The problem arrives when students transfer for athletic reasons. Those reasons don't apply to "normal" students. I can understand a student transferring because a professor they really wanted to work with has decided to move to another university.  Same with a coach that quits/gets fired. However, I do have an issue with a regular student who changes schools because they think they will get better grades at a different university because the competition is weaker there This does happen. I know people who left Stanford for exactly that reason although maybe in today's grade climate, it doesn't happen much. Often that is what an athlete is doing when looking for playing time.
One may say that the athlete is just going someplace that has a greater need for his/her skills. That is where the analogy to other students falls apart. There is no such thing as a "starting lineup" in undergraduate education. Everybody plays the same minutes. (In graduate programs there sometime is, and that is where you might want to change advisors. However, the stigma attached to that is still very non-zero). It falls apart even further when other universities solicit athletes to transfer because of their athletic skills. There are points in time when recruiting is considered acceptable. Grad transfers fit this paradigm. They are at a recognized transition point.  Recruiting undergraduates from one university to another is generally considered improper and doesn't happen much (if at all). With this change, it will happen for athletes all the time. Big difference. Once again, athletes will not be "just another student". At some point, universities will say "Enough. This isn't education, this is pure business. We don't want to be in this game." That is the real risk to Stanford (and other places) athletic programs that "free agency" brings.

[Goose]

I agree that the bond the alums and fans for programs around the USA have for the players erodes if even more players move around.
This is bad for Stanford competitiveness for reasons fans on this board understand.
However, nationally this is so much better for the student-athletes.   If the program, coach, athletic facilities, academic resources, campus culture, area weather or any number of other things are just not meeting expectations, then a person should be allowed to transfer just like other students on campus.   And with players able to transfer it will mean coaches will need to treat their players with greater respect.

Athletes go to a coach at a school, only to discover the coach is leaving shortly after they enroll.
Some athletes take a chance and go to other parts of the USA only to discover it is too far from home.
Athletes have even been stuck when dealing with family illnesses at home, campus discrimination, coach abuse and other things.

I know this is likely a negative for Stanford's competitiveness and probably bad for the appeal of college programs.  Yet its benefits for the thousands of student-athletes nationwide are noteworthy.  That's too big of a benefit for me to still want to maintain the status-quo for Stanford Athletics.

I totally agree that athletes should be allowed to transfer for the same reasons other students transfer. The problem arrives when students transfer for athletic reasons. Those reasons don't apply to "normal" students. I can understand a student transferring because a professor they really wanted to work with has decided to move to another university.  Same with a coach that quits/gets fired. However, I do have an issue with a regular student who changes schools because they think they will get better grades at a different university because the competition is weaker there This does happen. I know people who left Stanford for exactly that reason although maybe in today's grade climate, it doesn't happen much. Often that is what an athlete is doing when looking for playing time.
One may say that the athlete is just going someplace that has a greater need for his/her skills. That is where the analogy to other students falls apart. There is no such thing as a "starting lineup" in undergraduate education. Everybody plays the same minutes. (In graduate programs there sometime is, and that is where you might want to change advisors. However, the stigma attached to that is still very non-zero). It falls apart even further when other universities solicit athletes to transfer because of their athletic skills. There are points in time when recruiting is considered acceptable. Grad transfers fit this paradigm. They are at a recognized transition point.  Recruiting undergraduates from one university to another is generally considered improper and doesn't happen much (if at all). With this change, it will happen for athletes all the time. Big difference. Once again, athletes will not be "just another student". At some point, universities will say "Enough. This isn't education, this is pure business. We don't want to be in this game." That is the real risk to Stanford (and other places) athletic programs that "free agency" brings.