Let's say we give Rashada $3M a year to come.
What about Garcia? He has a good chance of being the starter next year.
What about Brown? He's a four star quarterback.
Don't they deserve comparable money to a player who has not even participated in a practice?
And what about TVD? He's at $1M now - certainly he would command a raise.
So if you're willing to give Rashada $3M, are you prepared to also fork out another $6 - $10M this year to keep TVD, Garcia, and Brown happy?
By no means is this a criticism of what you are saying. But even in the NFL, there are salary discrepancies. There are first-round QBs getting paid huge money who are not even playing and/or producing at the level of their compensation. And there are glue-guys who are really holding their teams together who are getting veteran minimum salaries.
Look, if Rashada is "worth" big money - that doesn't mean it's "Day 1 starter" money. He brings other recruits and gets you to a Top 5 class? Well, that has value too.
Again, I'm not saying that to lock myself in. If you think about it, there is a very legitimate reason for the (rough) pecking order that we have. Mario has been recruiting Rashada for years, back to his time at Oregon, so I understand why Rashada has been (until recently) Choice 1A. Choice 1B is the OC's guy, a guy HE has been recruiting for years, back to his time at Michigan. And Choice 1C is the most recent discovery of our just-outta-G5 QB Coach.
Setting aside everything else, I understand our ranking preference. Makes perfect sense. Yes, NIL and some other issues are complicating the calculus. It happens.
But we can't worry about "NIL $$$ equity" in every decision. If the price of poker went up this year, we need to ante up or fold and get the fvck out. You don't start redistributing your chips mid-game out of feelings of charity and equity.
In a couple of years, nobody in college will have enrolled pre-NIL. Good. Yes, I realize there are some temporary (and sizeable) inequities in dollar amounts right now. Can't fix that, unless we want to be like the Gaytors and waste all our collective money on paying the existing players that got us to 6 wins and a fired coach.