Export/import pipelines would need to change.

Custom tools need to be re-written or replaced.

Huge parts of the QA pipeline would need rework.

Any documentation, policies or work instructions referring to old tools need to be updated at best, re-written at worst.

Everyone who uses the software needs re-training.

Everyone who uses the software will drop in productivity for somewhere between 3 weeks and 3 months as they get familiar with the new stuff.

Software will have to be uninstalled and re-installed on most if not all workstations. (This will result in days or potentially weeks of cumulative downtime.)

All existing data saved in the old software's formats need to be converted to the new data's formats. This is a potentially lossy and/or destructive process, so needs its own QA process.

Everything that any of the art pipeline touched needs re-testing, and will almost certainly need maintenance work as a result.

There's an ongoing cost of training new people, as well. Students are usually trained in one of the big commercial packages, so re-skilling for Blender would be an overhead. On a closely related note, bringing in new people on short notice would be made far more difficult by using less common software.

autodesk maya is falling out of grace because blender is getting so much better as time passes, a lot of old maya users come to blender because it is doing thing better then maya, its compatible with a lot of applications and filetypes, its free and regularly updated as well.a few years ago i would have said the same as you here, but these days i wouldn't bother with maya at all, unless you really need it for an industry standard application, but even then blender pretty much got everything covered these days.industry standard doesn't mean much (unless you are a company of fair size) or want to wok for one:it mostly comes down to prior investment. A lot of large studios have a lot invested in the large packages. Sure, it might be free in terms of licensing to swap everyone over to Blender instead of buying even one extra Max or Maya seat at several thousand dollars, but what are the costs to the rest of the business? They'reSo yeah, themay be cheaper... but putting that aside, there's actually pretty solid reasons that the big names can continue to charge the prices they do. Anyone who's worked in a medium to large business will immediately see the large costs associated with even one of the points above, let alone all of them at once. So to an established business it's cheaper to keep going with the big name packages than it is to change. Which in turn means that it's important for students to learn at least one of the big packages, because if you want to get paid for your work you'd best know the tools that can get you a job.the home student license isn't that great either...Maya student edition saves files/items with a code/mark claiming a student has created X, whatever it is, Animations or models, behind the scenes a file/piece of code is written to tell people that this is a student edition creation and not a paid version creation, so selling your stuff from a student license will result in royalty/fee problems and what not... Hence, just use Blender.org so no one gets sued. Unless you have enough money to purchase Maya or Unity, 3DS Max or any expensive program. I say stick with being a freeloader on blender until you can cash in by being a worker for a company (which paid for a program to not worry about anything).the only reasons to pick maya, 3ds max or any other paid for software is for the quick and easy software/helpdesk support, a solid thought out roadmap for updates (since open source software like blender can update irregularly and on various random subjects within it), if you want a different/particular workflow and UI or because your colleagues at work use a particular software (for compatibility and or workflow reasons in the latter cases), or lastly, no (major) issues with royalties or fees etcetera... blender has none of these monetary fees/royalty problems.EDIT: PS, sorry for the wall of text... i am silly like that...