College FB doesn't make kids stay 3 years, the NFL does. Why? It helps them control their own inventory. (Maurice Clarett, Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, to name 3, could all have played in the NFL at 19 or 20 years old.)
I wasn't juxtaposing the FB schedule with basketball. College basketball wasn't part of the discussion, and has a different impact physically. (Why no one understands context anymore is bewildering.)
The OP was praising CFB for protecting players. My point was that if CFB existed for the players, instead of for revenue generation, promotional advertising and alumni gratification, and was primarily concerned with player safety, 8 games over 16 weeks, and a semester with no contact, would be the way to go.