It got F'd up when AD's and presidents started seeing College Football through the same lens that we view NFL. When the priority became, this...."Texas, unsurprisingly, led the nation by a wide margin by a whopping $33 million. The Longhorns have maintained their lead despite enduring the program’s worst decade since the 1950s. UT’s revenue has more than tripled since 2003, the earliest year data is available, when they led the country with $47 million in football-specific revenue." All the BS that the University does now under the guise of "gameday experience". The $6MM coaching salaries, the pay-to-play tailgate venues, the dozens and dozens of advertisers, the jumbo-trons with their jumbo commercials, etc.
You aren't going to get the ATHLETE-students to prioritize team obligations ahead of their own wallet when every other participant in the enterprise is "show me the money". Our institutions, (with our tacit approval) have almost destroyed the very thing that made college football special. We have basically turned this enterprise into a minor league full of Rent-a-Jocks.