The old rule was fine. If you transfer, you lose a years eligibility.
The problem is that coaches leave all the time so I have no real issues with the new rule. I believe it’s helped the SEC in most sports. Maybe all sports. The track programs have benefitted at Arkansas from the portal although track transfers were easy before.
I don’t have a real problem with the new rule. I used to think it was unfair that a player had to sit out a year when they had a legitimate and urgent reason to transfer, often pleading with the NCAA to no avail. But even though coaches and just people in the real world leave jobs for other jobs for more money, I do worry about players making mistakes in search of the mighty dollar, or being lured to do so. And players may already be in decent situations and just need patience, but patience seems to be in short supply now when it is so easy to transfer and hope for an instant solution. But I’m glad student athletes have the choice, even if they make a mistake.
Years ago when I was a freshman at Tulane another freshman I knew was unhappy and was wanting to transfer. Not an athlete, just a regular student. Schools that had accepted his application out of high school were reluctant to take him as a transfer, they wondered if he was not happy or successful his freshman year what did that say about his fitness for college in general and if they did let him transfer would he be unhappy there as well. Yes, there were still transfers, but how attitudes have changed.