better combination of coaching staff + playing time + team win potential and national visibility + NIL money, once started down the path with a program as he has with BYU. He can go get that PT and possibly $, but he'll sacrifice the coaching and wins and exposure because it will be at a lesser program. Or he could make a lateral move to a similar program in a Big 12 or Big 10 or ACC but will be starting over, won't have as clear a path to PT as a low-priority transfer target and probably therefore the NIL $ won't be there.

So it's about priorities, and this will be the question that must be asked by oneself of all the incoming freshmen that aren't instant contributors. If one is patient, focuses on self-development, and has the vision, all those things will (likely) come together by the time you are an upperclassman like they have for Hall, Saunders, Fouss, Knell. If they don't come together, as occasionally happens where injuries or illness or life gets in the way (Gavin Baxter), it wouldn't have worked out probably anywhere else either.

Or the other choice is some combination of impatience and self-doubt, and that also has the potential to work out if you think it's necessary to elevate certain priorities or sacrifice certain things. Maybe that does end up in an alternate path of success, but it's probably a bit riskier, and not likely to be better. If that's what a young player is determined to do, then they'll go and you can't stop them. Every year now the coaches are recruiting their entire roster again.

Honestly, it's probably exhausting being on either side of this thing with the crazy wild west transfer rules. I really hope they lock things down a bit more.