Despite some earlier posts, I'm not against some form of increased athlete compensation. But the way it's being managed now - which is to say it isn't being managed at all - is the road to ruin.
One element I really don't like is that the entire argument for increased athlete compensation in the first place was that college athletics has become such a big business and athletes weren't getting a piece of the pie. What's happening now does nothing to change that. We're not sharing the pie; we're growing a new one.
University presidents and athletic directors, the people who got us into this mess in the first place, won't be forced to scale back on building lavish facilities or rein in outrageous coaching compensation. They will still get the same TV money, ticket revenue, and donations and still won't have to share it. It'd be one thing if ADs recognized this and urged people to funnel some of their donations to NIL efforts, perhaps treating NIL gifts the same as donations for booster club purposes, but nobody realistically expects that to happen.
All this does is put even more pressure on fans. Even some of those that could probably handle the extra cost can't stomach the idea of simply bidding on the open market every offseason to find 15 guys to fill a roster and pray that they gel and it works out, only to do it all over again next year.