Of course a scholarship is enormous, but it’s not equitable. It also means a lot more for the future then it does in the present. It’s probably easy for your daughter or my kids to have some appreciation for you paying for college because they’re not worried about if their mom is getting evicted this month. Many student athletes I knew were sending home their Pell grants to their mom, brother, cousin, etc. To me, the issue again really is why a university should be making a windfall off kids.
Also, a scholarship is great, but if you’re one and done or two and done because you need to make money for your family, it doesn’t mean too much because you never end up with a degree.
Finally, there are very few people who have the work ethic of college athletes. I pride myself on being a worker and think it’s one of my better qualities. They said, I don’t know that I would have had it in me to do academics, tutoring, practice, etc in college. Waking up at 5 AM everyday while your classmates are nursing a hangover is some unreal work ethic.