We’re just getting closer to admitting that truth and paying the athletes for their work in the minor leagues, er, I mean college.

I mean, good. I want the college teams to have some essential nexus with the schools, but there are more ways to do that than the current or the prior model. The fiction that they're just regular ol' students who work out and practice and play for the love of "good ol' 'varsity" is ridiculous to the point of being insulting, and now we're in the worst of all worlds where the schools STILL pretend and therefore also won't pay the players directly to commit to them for 3-4 years, but the money is there so the players all (reasonably) follow it. Even the guys who have accepted that the NFL isn't an option (and among upperclassman starters I bet that's not very many) likely love the experience and lifestyle of playing football and/or getting a no-cost degree+NIL more than they love their specific schools.

And maybe someday soon we’ll come to grips with how outrageously oversized the minor leagues are compared to the majors.

But I think this inherently must be true. Talent is gradually sifted through the system. It has too start with a wide net and then get filtered down. From thousands of high schools to hundreds of colleges to tens of pro teams. Plus with both the NFL and whatever the spring league is, I don't think 130ish D1 teams is that ridiculously oversized. And with 130ish D1 teams, you need a ton of juco/dii+iii/hs options to fill the rosters.