At what point do people tune out?
The majority of the financial backbone of major college sports has been from television revenue. Royalties, licensing/merchandise, bowl games and ticket sales along with donations play a part, but TV sort of drives the ship. If people become disenchanted with CFB, I believe they'll stop watching (as much if not completely) and networks will react. Maybe we aren't there yet as a society. Maybe we are getting closer to it. In the same breath, how about large donors? Will they also lose interest? Without revenue streams from fans and alumni, NIL packages could dry up for recruits and players alike - at least at those schools that aren't top dogs in large conferences. How many times will a school's collective pay $8m (like Tennessee allegedly did for Nico Iamaleava) for a recruit only to have him hit the portal before they pull the plug There is absolutely no regulation or oversight right now.
Then there is conference realignment which seems to be driven by ESPN, at least via the playoff payouts. The playing field continues to get less and less balanced as the power grab continues between $EC, B1G and E$PN. I would say don't get hung up on the term collective bargaining so much as oversight and regulation. I'm not an attorney, so perhaps I used "collective bargaining" out of proper legal context. Right now, there is no oversight and regulation.
I realize this sounds like an old man wrote this. I also recognize that I'm all over the place on this - there are several different angles running concurrently so please accept my apologies ahead of time if it seems like I'm jumping around. I'm not defending the NCAA in any way. They have a role in all this happening. Their old-fashioned rules and arbitrary enforcement played a part. They suck. I am saying though, that I do not see how things as currently constructed can survive long term. If you don't like that, get off my lawn.