This actually makes a lot of sense to me as a good middle ground to paying players. The reality is the vast majority of college players have no commercial value outside of the context of college football (assuming, safely I think, that no one would actually watch minor league football), and I have never felt that value is greater than a full ride to a private school institution. For the elite athletes who have additional commercial value, having the ability to insure their future against injury while playing for the gain of a school seems like an entirely reasonable cost for the university to bear given the revenue generated by the athletes (and balancing that with the fact that the colleges do give athletes the chance to dramatically increase their earning potential).
To a couple of the points above: I highly doubt taxpayer money is used and these would be available to anyone, but unless there is a reasonable certainty that someone will have a successful nfl career, the policy amount would be so low that it wouldn't be worth purchasing.
