I will continue to beat this dead horse. The "value" of a scholarship, particularly the "70k a year" NU scholarship is spurious. NU has a generous financial aid program and it is "need blind". So let's say you are a poor football player, and are scholarship level, but truly, you are not an NFL candidate, though you do not know it yet. The actual value of the scholarship is what it replaces - the expected family contribution. I guess that would be, say, 20k, but let's say 30k just to be generous and capture some working class kids who are not so poor. So - your choice is to a) work full time, scheduling around your classes, and make around 30k a year to pay for it or b) bust your a$$ for dear ole alma mater, with a $5M head coach, for this 30k scholarship.
I assert that the football players work MORE than 40 hours a week, at an extremely physical job that would, in other industries in Chicagoland, make around 30 an hour.
The players are no more than indentured servants, and, in fact, college football players are akin to a race horse - all of the performance, none of the money. You can build all of these fancy facilities to wow them, and provide medical care, massages etc, just like you would a race horse. But - in the end, THEY are providing the entertainment, revenue and value, and the BS scholarship is just a scam.
No other economy exists like this - HS football: low revenue, no player money, low pay coaches. College football - extremely high revenue, no player money*, high pay coaches. NFL - extremely high revenue, player pay, coach pay. It's a ludicrous system. NIL is "an idea", but it basically sanctions what the bagman boosters have been doing for decades - paying players at high profile programs.
Mel Tucker signed a 90million contract. That's all you need to know. I had never heard of him before last year.