re: NIL - the separation between college athletes and college students is immense

Look at the degrees the guys who graduated in December received. They are things like poli-sci, marketing, MBA, MS in HR and Leadership Development. While they're not going into petroleum engineering, those are legitimate degrees that hundreds of regular students also graduate with each year. Sure, there are plenty of football players who don't do jack in the classroom. There are plenty of normal undergrads who don't too.

I entered LSU with a scholarship, phucked around, made awful grades, lost the scholarship, still managed to graduate from LSU's easy arse business school, worked, went to law school, and consider myself a pretty decent functioning member of society. I have dozens of friends who took the exact same or eerily similar routes.

My point is that LSU isn't Harvard. There are some fantastic programs, and some fantastic students, but all in all, plenty of undergrads who show up are just doing it to check a box and party. No different from the football players, except the football players have to work a hell of a lot harder even when they're just phucking around.