It is for your list of questions. Both forms of the game have all the same job titles doing all the same work. The difference is NFL players get paid and college football players are specifically barred from payment by an oversight body that’s corrupt and inept.
The NCAA is inept and corrupt…..no argument here….that doesn’t change the argument, although you are not the only one blinded by how you feel about the NCAA.
But the difference between college and pro is that any highly skilled highly paid industry needs those who would enter that industry to be trained. If a year of Harvard Law School is worth say 100 thousand dollars because of how much money it will train you to make, then what is a year playing basketball or footall worth in future earnings?
But there’s more. A university makes money because of the name of the university, period. A particular group of players is hardly relevant. If the players think they are the relevant item, then a minor league that makes a lot of money will spring up. Until then, the players have no argument in logic that “they produce the revenue.”
Johnny Manziel is awesome and compelling, but he walked out onto the field for his first snap ever with 95 thousand adoring fans simply because he had Texas A and M on his helmet. Period.