The schools have collaborated to cap their value at a scholarship, absolutely, however the athletes are free to seek employment anywhere they want. I see the sticking point in the argument is you want to call athletes employees of the university, which they are not. I choose to see them as students, which they are. If the athlete wants to be an employee within their sport they have that choice, it just resides outside of the NCAA model but the NCAA does not prohibit them from going that route, the potential employer does prohibit it through their employment qualifications.
I guess my perspective comes down to the concept of personal choice. Regardless of if the NCAA is taking advantage of the athlete, each athlete (and/or their legal guardian depending on age) was aware of the “compensation package” when they signed their NLI and all of the rules that go along with it. They signed willingly. They presumably had other options that they explored (European leagues, private training, semi-pro leagues, etc.) and made an informed choice to accept a scholarship and play by the rules.
Do I think that there could be some changes to how the scholarship for athletes could be changed, absolutely. Are the moves by the power 5 to meet total cost of attendance a move in the right direction, yes. Is there more that could be done, yes. But to think the players should share in large portions of the revenue is not the answer.
I am not a fan of Title IX and some of the changes it has brought to the NCAA landscape (although there are good important changes as well). How would paying revenue sport athletes but not non-revenue sport athletes be viewed in this context? I am not a legal scholar but I would imagine paying a male basketball player while not paying a female player would cause issues under Title IX. Take this out to the next level does it become an issue of paying all athletes to avoid any potential legal issues? I don’t know but at some point a line has to be drawn or the schools already operating in the red just go deeper in the red.
At the end of the day my opinion is if, as an athlete, you don’t like the opportunity put in front of you, don’t accept it, take your ball and go home (or to the pros, or to Europe) but don’t claim an opportunity you willingly accepted is now unfair to you. Athletes do this all the time. Ricky Williams didn’t like the NFL policy on marijuana so he quit. Greg Louganis didn’t like the college training restrictions and felt they were not beneficial to him so he quit (and turned out alright competitively).