College football makes "major league" money. If they made an actual minor-league, no one would give a shit. No one went to the University of Ann Arbor Aardvarks -- the ties that bond us to college sports would be non-existent and it would be the same as any minor league team. A few diehard fans but minimal to no advertising revenue, tv/streaming money, etc. thus there wouldn't be all this money to give away (or in the case of the topic above -- earned from endorsements, agents and the like).

College football is already the minors anyway, since the "we ain't come here to play school" mantra is far more common than the Jake Rudocks of the world. 

First, how is this different from the NFL?  Certain players are multi-millionaires and others are paid far, far less.

Second, if booster networks feel like they want to give each player at least *SOMETHING*, there's nothing stopping a particular team booster or a consortium of smaller team boosters pooling their money to contract NIL deals to make that happen.

"Johnny under-rated 3 star recruit, as you can see, the fanbase really believes in the TEAM concept here at XYZ university. As you can see from the historical trends, traditionally the booster networks arrange for minimum NIL deals for every eligible player on the roster to get at least $25,000 per year, on top of whatever other position group or individual NIL deals they may get."

Or alternatively, something somewhat more focused for key elements of the team, like OL, DL, "everybody on the 2 deep" etc. to ensure that they're each getting a guaranteed amount for every live snap they play, or game they start, etc.

"As you can see from the rolling historical 5 year trend, the fanbase here at XYZ university REALLY appreciates OL play.  On top of whatever NIL deal you might sign as an individual, if you end up going there, historical data shows that you'll likely receive a minimum of  $50K per year in NIL compensation for being on the 2-deep and a minimum of about $90K per year in NIL compensation as a starter."

Bottom line is, the generational talents & nationally known superstars might get mega NIL deals just for signing with a certain team.  Certain established starting players who star/are featured on the team may get very handsome deals from local business owners, multi-millionaire boosters, or pooled non-profit booster networks.  But there is nothing stopping the NIL sponsors from decideding to create a minimum guaranteed NIL compensation for all eligible players on the roster, or additional minimum guaranteed NIL compensatin for all members of a certain position group, etc. 

The cheaters are going to continue to cheat to gain/maintain an unfair advantage of course. But by making MORE things permissible, there's simply a smaller amount of forbidden activities for those cheaters to exploit. This improves the situation for four reasons:

1. At some point cheaters will reach diminishing returns when trying to exploit a certain prohibited practice. 
   
   Does anybody really think the elite programs, (who ALREADY have no qualms about cheating mind you), are being half-assed currently?  That is, you think they're only committing academic fraud, violating the capped 20 hour per week mandatory practice limit, or running PED programs a *little bit* & purposefully leaving significant untapped advantages on the table?  Maybe, but it's doubtful.  They're likely already milking everything they feel like they can possibly get away with.  In some cases could they get MORE desperate & get even more aggressive than they were previously willing to get?  Sure.  But that also means they're likely taking far more risk as well, which impacts point #3 below.
   
     
2. .Yes, on the margins, removing the amount of restricted activities related to NIL deals to players will create new types of "cheating/activities" around the margins of those activities.  But ultimately, any breaking of THOSE rules would be by definition giving the cheaters notably smaller marginal returns compared to what's going on now. 
   
   For example, currently some schools have zero-limit bagmen being directed by coaching staffs and they're going against other schools that don't have ANY bagmen at all.  So for example, XYZ cheater school coaching staff directs $250K to a certain recruit whereas ABC school isn't even playing the game.  That's a difference of $250K versus $0. 
   
   Conversely, in a regime with new rules on NIL deals related to overall caps, prohibition of direct or indirect steering/control of NIL deals by schools/coaching staffs, etc., it's likely that the other school is at least "playing the game" by the rules.  So yes, school XYZ coaching staff may be directly steering $250K to a recruit when the rules only allow 3rd party arm's length deals with recruits capped at $150K.  But at least ABC school has a shot at their booster network offering a $150K NIL deal.  School XYZ still has an advantage, but it's by definition much narrower than it would have been prior to the new rules being in place.
   
    
3. This may be naive, but with fewer rules and a smaller amount of "dark corners" for cheaters to exploit, it's possible that MAYBE the NCAA will get more serious & sincere about consistently & competently enforcing the rules alredy on the books.  Additionally, if cheaters do get more desperate/bold to push existing cheating activity beyond previous limits in a risky bid to recoup their diminished advantages, it's also inherently more likely that they'll get busted doing it.  

Unless you keep the under the table payments under the table to evade taxes...

My problem with the professionalization is that everyone thinks money will fix everything.  Is the NCAA a joke? Absolutely, it needs reform so fricken badly.  Who here thinks giving 18 year old kids more money than they can handle is going to somehow help them better themselves and make it in this world if say, athletics fails them?  Something needs to be done for these kids, monetarily, or at least to give them protection from injury.  Some sort of insurance perhaps?  Maybe a contribution to a retirement fund; insuring them for their future? This is a way more complicated issue than can be solved but just saying "pay the players". 

This is just the first domino.  We aren't far from full professionalization of sports, college fantasy football, college fball full free agency, sports agents that ultimately decide which "college" they will go to, etc.  Its a brave new world. 

What tells you that something similar is not happening now? If anything, the new California law will bring these above board. Then IRS gets involved and everyone is happy. Or may be not happy. 

It seems like a system could be created to manage this. 

First make a rule that all endorsement deals must be disclosed.

Second the NCAA could create some type of independent organization to determine the market value of each player (or class of player such as five start recruits, starting defensive back, etc.).  This would establish the top compensation the player could receive for various endorsement activities.  You update these values every year based on market results.  We would end up with something like the max going rate to be the spokesman for a car dealership for one year is $50,000.  If the car dealership offered $500k that would be viewed as a booster payment to a player and not allowed.

Third the school or an organization the school approved could act as an agent for the student athletes.  They would have a price list for the endorsement activities student athletes can offer and would handle the marketing, contracting and scheduling.

There are lots of details to work out, but it is not unsurmountable to regulate

And yet, professionals were allowed in the Olympics in 1992. I think it's a stretch to claim that decision over 25 years ago is a major factor in the recent dip in viewership.