I'm not disagreeing with you, but who says defections have to be a bad thing. We want Ben to have his guys here playing his system. If we're being honest those very same players "defecting" were also part of the reason Fran didn't get the results needed to keep his job and was terminated. If Ben wants those guys there's nothing wrong with Ben having to re-recruit them, because they're not his guys. That doesn't mean they're shallow or there's no pride. To be completely fair they may have no idea if there's even a place in Ben's system for them or what their role/value would be at that point.
I wish the players leaving and Fran the best, btu if they leave they leave. It has nothing to do with loyalty or school spirit. They gave what they had to the coach and school that recruited them. Things have changed and they need to do what's in the best interest for themselves, just like the University did what was in the best interest of the program when they let Fran go.
If they didn't put they names in the portal when they did, there is no telling what they could possibly miss out on. You call it shallow I call it proactive. They owe the program just as much as the program owes them. It's not fair to call them shallow, because they want to do what's best for themselves rather than waiting around to find out if they even have a place in Ben's system.
Let it play itself out. And to be honest, they're being called out now for not having "school pride" or "school loyalty" but then they'd be called stupid later if they stuck around and the program didn't fit their skill sets and things didn't pan out.
