1) If they threw a basketball party and no players came, would it still be a basketball party? I don't care if John Wall makes a dime. I'm saying ALL Kentucky players deserve to be paid.
2) Value is commesurate to how much cash is made overall. If UofL makes $52 million in a year (and it did), the players should receive a large portion of that. I don't care that they MIGHT make money at the next level, I don't care the pittance colleges give to student-athletes. I don't care about marketing. It's about the value of the service provided. Without all those man-child, glass-eating, quarterback-spearing, full-court diving behemoths, there is no game for the school to make money on.
Would it blur the line between amateur and professional? Sure.
So what?
That line's been blurred so far that it's hardly recognizeable as a line anymore. Private high schools offer tens of thousands for 14-year-olds to play. Colleges offer mad money already. It's all a matter of degrees.