When the options are:
1. quit the team and go home, with no certainty
2. test the waters, then quit the team when you have a suitor (not if), keep on trucking with a scholly/free ed
When the only option is 1, it makes it much less attractive to just quit. Not near as easy of a choice.
I think it just needs to be made a little harder than "quit anytime you want on a whim with zero consequence"
I like Snags' idea of a window - good start.
I have no problem with kids having the option to transfer elsewhere. Regular students do, even those on a full ride of some kind. I just think a window of time, even if it's a set time, a couple of times a year, allows some sense of stability for the coaches and program. I also think it allows the player a better opportunity to explore his options and make a better decision. As opposed to, "Well fuck, that freshman just knocked me back to 3rd on the depth chart. I'm out."
There needs to be more structure to it, because it's crazy how many of these guys go in the portal and never get picked up. I think most of them feel like if they go in the portal, all these teams will start recruiting them again, and they can choose who they want. Apparently, that ain't the way it works for a lot of them.