Non-athletes have no penalty for transferring, so this brings them into a greater degree of equivalency with normal students. To be honest, it seems to be working out for the teams as well as guys who are transferring are generally not projected to be starters anymore at their old school, so them leaving opens up a scholarship. I could be mistaken, but I believe most players do still face a one year wait penalty for transferring. For guys that are starters, transferring is a little bit different, because that actually hurts the team. But think about guys like Patterson at Michigan. His coaches essentially lied to him about the prospects of the team getting hit with probation and as a result he wanted to transfer because you are only eligible for so many years and he wanted to get the most out of him college career. I believe Kansas State or somewhere like that had a case where the coach essentially held the player hostage where he wouldn't approve a transfer to anyone. I think that was eventually resolved, but the point is that the programs still have a fair amount of power and at least occasionally abuse it. Giving the players a little more freedom hurts the teams sometimes, but it's still probably just bring the balance of power into greater equilibrium.