It has been said that quite a few colleges are basically "football teams with a school attached".
When sports end, the schools will end. Combine this with the plagiarism scandals at Harvard and other achools, the worthless degrees, the student loan crisis, and increasing awareness of the indoctrination issues and the US university system may collapse entirely.
Personally, I would like to see a national push for On The Job training, trade schools and similar initiatives. The number of young people who "need" something like college is probably less than 10% of the number of people who currently go to college. It's basically a scam except (perhaps) for engineering and medicine.
Fans in cities and wealthy could gave college aged football players a team to join. or more minor leagues. There is no law that says a college should have a football or basketball team Intermural sports might keep those interested, active on campus,.