Has the NBADL hurt college basketball?
Completely different comparison. A: College basketball isn't nearly as lucrative as college football and B: Athletes can leave college after one year in basketball anyway.
The main issue here really is the fact that college covers for the NFL a bit. With the rise of health concerns, the NFL doesn't really want to make pros out of 18 year olds (and also take on that liability) and furthermore, what's better for the kid? A developmental contract, or a college education?
There's no doubt that college football benefits from the current arrangement, as does the NFL. If you want another comparison, how about college baseball? It doesn't come remotely close to the popularity of the major leagues, and they have a well developed minor league system.
The Big 10 said some other interesting things in the past, including in regards to the O'Bannon case, in which they basically said they might drop football (forget who exactly said it), or go down to a lower level. The Big 10 is posturing, but their position here is clear, they don't want to pay more, and they don't care as much about their football "product" as some other conferences.
The Big 12 and SEC are among the voices that are making it clear that they are fine with stipends or that sort of thing (ironically, something some students at Big 12, Big 10 and SEC schools already can get). I think the middle ground is the key, have stipends, may be make some other common sense reforms, but don't wreck college football.
