The fairest way I can think of to pay players is to allocate a profit-sharing percentage, say 15- 20%, of overall profits to a players trust fund for those sports that generate net profits after expenses to the Schools, NCAA and Conferences. Football and basketball would earn the lion's share of the player profit annual payout, as those two sports generate the most TV profits. Sports like NCAA baseball, hockey, wrestling and lacrosse that generate more NCAA tourney profit than they cost to produce would get less total money than football or hoops, but would split a percentage of the NCAA profits they generated. Sports that don't generate more profit than than their NCAA tourney costs to produce (that's most other NCAA sports) would not receive a payout. Then divide the sport-specific payout by the number of student athletes who who stay in school at least two years, and pay them their profit-sharing fee after sophomore, junior or senior years, based on how much those players actually played over the course of that season. (minutes played, innings played, matches completed, etc.)