You really think that these top end guys wouldn't be doing something else? By the way, the "They get a scholarship" argument is garbage because of the fact that the educations they receive are sketchy at best. Most of these schools have NO intention of truly educating these kids. If they did, they would expect the typical incoming student athlete to have a similar academic profile to the rest of the student body. They don't. If it was truly about education, then the UNC basketball program wouldn't exist today. That program had a decades long run of institutionally supported academic fraud, no punishment whatsoever from the NCAA or the ACC.
There's a reason why people don't line up to watch NAIA or FCS ball. It's because no one gives a **** about second and third tier athletes. These top end athletes know that they have some leverage and while they may have overreached, they are doing something they should have done decades ago. College sports is the ONLY industry in which everyone else gets paid, EXCEPT for the labor. You aren't finding these athletes on every corner, you sure as **** aren't finding the high end guys working at the five and dime.