This is what I have been screaming. Regardless of all the "oppressed vs. oppressor" name calling going on today, OP you are on point. College football has been and will be minor league football in the not too distance future. The money is driving all decisions of the NCAA, the college presidents, etc. and the players can see that. I too see why the players want a piece. I can see the unfairness in the enterprise.
But the problem with this logic is that many fans will quit caring. I mean college football attendance is already falling off. I don't watch minor league baseball, do you? Anybody watch the NBA d-league? College football is the best sport bc it is the last true team sport played at a very high, competitive level. The professional leagues have devolved into players being more important than the team. The NBA has been this way since Magic and Bird, and when they stopped playing zone defense. MLB has been this way since 1994. In fact, the NFL is the most resistant to this effort but the way QBs are valued over every other player means it too is heading that way.I too stopped watching the NFL like you and pretty much all professional sports. For better or worse, college athletics is heading that way. I mean, really there are 10 competitive teams right now and the rest don't have a chance of winning it all. The power has already been whittled down to the top programs. The true question is this - how many people will stop caring and watching. Like you OP, I think a lot will.
College football has always been the minor leagues. The minor leaguers are just going to get compensated more.
Why will you quit caring? The players already are getting the cost of attendance stipend. What has that changed? Nothing.
Minor league baseball isn't a fair comparison, IMO. No one knows the players from the time they are drafted. They also don't have a TV deal for people to watch.
The NBA D-league is comprised of lower talents. The top talent from high school and college go directly into the NBA. And again, the D-league doesn't have a network contract to show them.
The NBA's usage of zone defense THIS year was up 50% back in January.
MLB didn't change much after the '94 strike. Recent years have led to shifts in strategy and philosophies (such as limiting the starters to 5 or so innings) but it's still the same. Some teams spend a lot on payrolls and George Steinbrenner did the same back in the '80s. Dave Winfield made too much money back then and Justin Verlander makes too much today. Still the same 90 feet between bases.
The QBs are getting the most money because it is the most important position in all of sports. The beauty of this is to see other teams adopting an alternative strategy and trying to win with QBs on their rookie contracts to spend elsewhere on the roster. How is this bad?
People will only stop watching because they have an infinite amount of other things to do now as opposed to when you were a kid.
You know what the complaints were in the NFL '60s? The merger.
'70s? Moving of the hash marks.
'80s? Defenders had to get their hands off WRs after 5 yards.
'90s? No huddle takes off.
Remember when Saban complained about spread offenses just a few years ago?
Every one of these moved the sport forward.
Gotta evolve, brother.