Today, college athletes have more freedom than ever when it comes to transferring schools in search of the right fit.
And it took one Bushnell men's basketball player multiple stops to find his true home.
When Bushnell faced Oregon State in November, the Beacons fell short 83-66. But it was a Beacon not a Beaver leading the game in scoring with 27 points.
"We really hung with them. They were, at halftime, they felt a little tight," says Bushnell junior center Spencer Hoffman. "Their coaches were screaming. I thought we were feeding off the energy in there. It was getting a little quiet."
It wasn't an easy path for Bushnell's 6'11" center Spencer Hoffman to get to that performance. During his high school career at Marist Catholic and Churchill, the weight of expectations was downright crippling at times.
"It felt like a job to me. I had tons of different coaches telling me all of the things I could be, all the potential that I had."
After high school, Hoffman chose to attend a prep school to further develop his game. But the pressure continued to slow him down.
"I wasn't enjoying playing. I hit some real lows there that I had to work through. The best way for me to dig out of those lows is just to rediscover how to have fun."
Once he found that joy again, Hoffman played well enough to move up to the NCAA Division II level. In two seasons at Colorado Christian, he put up impressive stats but craved a more winning culture. When it was time to make another college decision, Hoffman reconnected with Bushnell's Eddie Alexander, who had tried to recruit him a couple years earlier.
"He stayed in touch with me all through my time in Colorado. (He) would send me texts after good games, which I've always really appreciated."
"I've learned you don't burn bridges at all and Spencer's proof of that," says Alexander.
After signing with Bushnell, then redshirting for a year, Hoffman is now playing his best basketball yet and he's embracing a leadership role for the first time in his college career.
"It's funny that kinda home was always just right here when I had to go all the way out to Missouri, had to go to Colorado, had to go through all of these options just to find that, yeah, home was here."
A long and winding road that led him right back to Eugene.