The NCAA is an awful organization, don’t get me wrong, but I personally think this all stemmed from losing that lawsuit to Oklahoma/Georgia back in the early 80s. They saw where it was leading and really began to shirk their responsibilities (of course before that they only cared about the money-making side of things anyway, not the good of the sport. Hence the bowl cabal).
But now it’s clear that the schools/conferences basically allow the NCAA to exist, mostly for the handling of their non-football sports. And soon enough private equity will get involved, and then it will really turn to shit. Wouldn’t surprise me if they tried to turn it into a professional league to rival the NFL.