And the practice and game fields/courts. Regular students dont have access to those.

Providing services to the athletes on how to handles obligations is as much of a benefit to the university and athletic department as it is to the athlete. Hard to get your 5-star on the field when he is in jail for tax fraud.

Schools should absolutely be allowed NOT to include those services if they so choose. And they aren't mandated to include them. But recruits are going to flock to the places that do include them.

No one was saying an academic degree means nothing. But there were far too many athletes being placed into a sham degree for it to be perceived that everyone was getting something of value. There are also academic scholarship students who were allowed to make money off their NIL rights, so did they not value their academic scholarship?

There are also walk-ons, who saw zero of the scholarships, but still had to play by the same rules as the scholarship kids. Cant run a camp back home. Cant sell game-worn clothing (even if owned by the athlete). Cant develop a hobby that becomes profitable. Still have a full time job as a student and a second full time job as an athlete. And getting payment for neither.

This notion that athletes should shut up and be thankful for what they have rings hollow when the universities, coaches and everyone else around them continually asks for more, while athletes need to hold to the status quo. So spare me...