When I graduated from high school (1964)...athletes were pretty much scholar-athletes. You could go a whole career at a school like FSU or Southern Miss and not appear on television. Coaches did not make star quality money.
Black athletes were successful at Black institutions like Grambling and Florida A&M...integration has not only changed the face of college football, but has had a real impact upon the former Black powerhouses.
Even when Bobby Bowden came to FSU for the salary of $35,000, the game had not exploded. It took the 1981 law suit against the NCAA to open up football...and then cable and satellite led to where we are.
College football has been in the entertainment industry for 30 years....it is only tangentially related to education.
And to be honest...there is probably an inverse relationship between 40 speed and SAT scores among athletes...athletes are recruited for being fast, being big, being strong...but not particularly for how high their SAT's are.
If you want true scholar athletes...look to Division III.