Yes contracts are that simple. As long as they're legal.
People are only looking out for themselves and its beyond selfish. Giving players more power/money is just going to lead to more problems for them, and schools. ESPECIALLY MIAMI!
If we let our players have all the money in the world, would they be focusing on football? Would they care about putting in extra work in the weight room, or film room? NO. They'd be at the club, or cruising around town getting in constant trouble.
17 and 18 year olds dont need millions of dollars. Schools can barely contain these players stupid behavior as it is, and have to sweep **** under the rug constantly. Now imagine all these players have unlimited money. Unimaginable trouble. Under your system you'd have 5 star kids getting rich and lower rated kids making nothing. Im sure that wouldnt cause any strife in the locker room right?
Its what makes college football better than the NFL. The players are working their asses off for the chance at making it big.
The "middle-ground" you speak of is what I said in my first post. A profit sharing program. Take 25% of the income from ticket and football merch sales and put it in a pot every year. If a player graduates, stays out of trouble, and stays for 4 years, they get their equal cut from each of the 4 years pots. A nice incentive to stick around for 4 years. Your system would have kids leave after one year which is terrible for literally every team.
You have to look at the second and third order effects instead of just whats right in front of your face.