Getting money "under the table" is the way some have gotten it in the past. So for that method nothing has changed, or presumably ever will.
There are so many specious arguments in this thread it's hard to count. 1) Athletes should get a piece of the action because U's and the NCAA (both NFP's prohibited from making a profit) are "making money". lol. Maybe my middle schooler should get a share of the bloated salaries his district doles out to administrators. As though student athletes (the vast majority) aren't in learning institutions and administrators haven't completed their education and taken up careers. This is an inane category error that is beneath some of the posters who repeat it.
2) Athletes should get a "piece of the pie" because their skill contributes to team success. As though performance (and recruitment) were
actually legal under the new NCAA rules. News flash, it's still against NCAA rules to pay a SA for performance or recruitment. We just say it's "NIL" with a wink and a nod.
3) There was corruption before so why not expand it, legalize it and rationalize it? As though its not 100x worse now, with college sports up for sale to the wealthiest car dealerships. Let's be honest: every single dollar of NIL is paid because of an athlete's "worth" as a player, i.e., his skill ... (euphemisms for performance).
4) Athletes deserve NIL because their images are used in TV and advertising. Ok. Then let ESPN pay them. Otherwise, NIL is a transparent ruse to justify pay for play. In simple terms, if you take the jerseys off the backs of star players, no one would pay them a dollar ... because it's TEAMS that hold the value, Universities' with 150 year-old brands. They have the intellectual property value, not individual players.
Speeding is illegal. And people still do it. That doesn't mean we should take all the signs down and encourage speeding. Same with corruption in college sports. It's still going on - NIL wasn't was never going to be a panacea. Stop kidding yourselves (some of you). I know this is unpopular with some. IDC.
Scholarships are legit if in fact players are actually students who have a legitimate financial need. Even stipends to help them with transportation, clothing and other costs. The rest is all a farce. The settlement just makes it a more organized farce.