My daughter went to a D1 in the southeast and transferred back to a SoCal JC after her freshman year. The D1 program changed head coaches between the end of the school year and when my daughter reported in the summer. She said the new coach was an a-hole and she was not going to play for him. She was also shocked at the level of racism that still exists in the south and at the college. She played her sophomore year at a JC and really enjoyed it. She did look into transferring to a SoCal 4-year college and playing, but decided to save her parents some money by going to a JC and making her focus on academics. My daughter made all of these decisions before she told my wife and I. She says she should have skipped the 4-year college and gone straight to a JC out of high school.
You need to read the NCAA transfer rules before you make any decisions.
http://www.ncaa.org/student-athletes/current/transfer-terms