You do realize that so called bluebloods rule college basketball and college football. Disparity really isn't a thing. ISU will never compete for a championship in either sport. And really, in college basketball, the east coast or eastern midwest schools rule college basketball. The only school west of the Mississippi to win a title since 2000 is Kansas. In football its the Southern schools that have dominated since 2000 with a couple bluebloods in OSU and USC thrown in.
But it isn't just paying players. It is the amateurism rules in general that are dumb. Why can't a kid get paid for an endorsement in college? Why can't a kid sign with an agent in basketball and football but he can in baseball and hockey? Why can't a kid sell his autograph and make money off of his likeness? There is nothing inherently wrong with these things.
The colleges and the NCAA, like Bilas says, want to make as much money as they can and figure out ways to make more and more money but yet they pretend like it is a strictly amateur operation and that it is really about academics and the 'student-athlete'. Ok, NCAA, if this isn't really a business then give up the TV contracts, give up the money from apparel companies and all other sources of income. Let's have a pure amateur system and keep money out of it.