I'm not arguing that the current system was the answer. I've been watching since the late 70's and the sport has really went downhill the moment they introduced the BCS and big money got involved. Like all things it touches money and greed corrupts. The SEC was the first to really dump large amounts of money into their programs, infrastructure, and under the table payments to athletes. Then other conferences started following suit. The NCAA really screwed the pooch standing still, altering rules, and not creating opportunities for athletes to make extra money to help maintain a level playing field. In addition, the NCAA also further screwed up the product by selectively enforcing infractions of breaking the rules and not investigating teams that were pretty obviously not following the rules.
However, as I mentioned previously the current state of the NIL is not the answer either.