You're arguing against yourself. You say this when you're trying to say there's no harm because it's already happening all the time:
1. If kids are already showing up with expensive stuff, which happens all the time, then the entire point of whining about a sponsorship deal is irrelevant.
and
Well of course it is with regards to high-level players at major college programs. We've known about this for decades.
But then:
The only people not earning money is the kids, which is absurd.
They're all making money...except they're not making money.
???
And then in terms of the willingness of alumni to spend, you actually proved my point that alumni don't need hard numbers for ROI:
Access, tickets, parking, luxury boxes, special privileges at events, charitable contributions, access and enrollment for their children. University employees being funneled to buy their product, contracts for employment, etc.
Things like "access and "special privileges at events" are non-economic benefits, and "tickets, parking, luxury boxes" are things they still actually have to pay for. Plus, that stuff and the rest of it is all based on their legal,
public contributions to the athletic program. And most of that still isn't a quantifiable ROI.
But more importantly, what we're talking about are the illegal, under the table payments directly to athletes for which alumni receive no credit, and necessarily take pains to conceal. Yet, despite receiving no credit or discernable "return on investment" from those illegal payments, they do them (or have shown a willingness in the past absent NCAA crackdowns) anyway. Why? Simply because they're freakish fans and want the Tide (or whomever) to have the best team possible. So assuming they wouldn't funnel more money to athletes without provable ROI doesn't make sense. They've already shown that they simply want to help the team win and are willing to make illegal payments. How much more fun money will they be willing to spend if it doesn't have to be hidden?
But now they will presumably have to put that down on paper, and be held accountable for the ROI to their stakeholders.
I'm pretty sure most of that money was personal wealth, not embezzlement from a publicly-owned corporation. The only people they would have to explain their payments to are themselves. Either personal wealth, or the car dealerships they own (maybe with other alumni) etc..
Nike and other large, publicly traded corporations won't be fighting to get players to sign with Alabama v. Clemson or OSU. It's individually wealthy alumni who will be doing that.