When quarterback Dru Brown chose to transfer from the University of Hawaii to Oklahoma State in 2018 for his final season of eligibility, some folks initially took it as disloyalty.

Two years later, a vast majority of people have wished point guard Drew Buggs well in his decision to transfer from UH to Missouri for his final season, even if some couldn’t fully put their arms around the choice of destinations.

Part of the change in attitude is that in the intervening 26 months with the advent of the NCAA transfer portal, there have been so many players on the move among schools that fans, even some of the most hardcore, have come to recognize it as a sign of the times. Three Rainbow Warrior basketball players alone have transferred in the past month.

And Buggs, for what he has been through, with his mother’s death, and what he has accomplished, as the school’s all-time assists leader on a knee that has never fully healed, is a sympathetic figure.

But you wonder what the reactions might be for future transfers if the NCAA Council, as expected, votes to establish a one-time free transfer policy for all sports when it meets in three weeks.

The policy, if approved, could become effective as soon as this fall, potentially opening the floodgates well beyond what we’ve seen to date with the soon-to-be two year old NCAA transfer portal.

While Brown and Buggs are permitted immediate eligibility because they are graduate transfers, under the proposal before the NCAA Council, even athletes who have yet to graduate would also be granted instant eligibility if in good academic standing. Subsequent moves would require sitting out a season as is the current policy for non-graduates in football, women’s and men’s basketball, baseball and hockey.

Coaches, athletic directors and university presidents have long had freedom of movement in their jobs, free to seek greener pastures or flee tougher situations. For many, it is possible to announce they are leaving a job on one campus on a Friday and begin a new one somewhere else on Monday without penalty.

But athletes have been held to a more restrictive standard and penalized for their moves, especially in sports where a school’s investment in athletes is considerable and the sports produce major revenue. Some leagues even required transfers within a conference to forfeit two years of eligibility as an effort to deter movement.

At UH, the passage of time has shown that Brown’s departure didn’t hamper the Rainbow Warriors. In fact, along with the switch to the run-and-shoot offense, it opened the way for Cole McDonald and the ’Bows to shine.

In basketball, UH will surely miss Buggs’ steady, play-making hand. But you also have to acknowledge that he has more than earned the opportunity to test himself at a higher level than the Big West offers. After you’ve played for three years in Cal State Northridge’s 2,500-seat Matadome, who wouldn’t want to play in Kentucky’s 23,000-seat Rupp Arena?

Of course, there is another way to look at Buggs’ departure. UH got Negus Webster-Chan (2013) and Stefan Jankovic (2014) from Missouri while the Tigers got Keith Shamburger from UH in 2014. So, just consider Buggs as the player to be named later in the deal.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.