You can look a bit to the basketball transfer portal to see what we are in for. There are a lot of guys that haven't found a new home (and a lot of them likely haven't entered yet, that will). Some guys look to be stepping down to lower ranked programs but quite a few are performers at lower programs and transferring to better schools. It is all relative. There are kids at EVERY school who were expecting to play that aren't. There are also top guys in mediocre programs seeing this as an opportunity to play for a CWS contender. This summer will truly be the Wild Wild West. My son's team (top 10) just played one of the lower P5 teams. He told me about a conversation during warm ups. A freshman from the other team was saying he had 13 innings and topped at 89 (12 era) , and was asking my freshman son about his experience. He has had some injuries but has still not played what he expected. He told the kid he had 4.5 innings (5 era) and topped at 96. The kids response was WTF? To which my son replied...we have 23 pitchers and they all throw that hard. It's not completely true, but its pretty close. A lot of kids think the grass is going to be greener, but I'm just not sure it is. There are guys stuck in a log jam that could start other places. With the one time transfer, a lot of them are not going to tough it out. A lot of players that think it's going to clear out next year, may see a group of new faces transfer in. When to go in? I'd say wait until the season is over, I don't know that coaches are going to commit until they see what's on the table and most of that will happen end of May-July 1. That said, realize that this is one time that research and educating yourself on a program isn't going to be that helpful. I agree with having someone gauge interest before you leave where you are.