The way this is going to go is the way of European soccer. A lot of people don't understand that professional sports in the US are actually very socialist. For the most part, the leagues share TV revenue equally even though the NY and LA clubs bring in the most eyeballs. With drafts that benefit poor performing teams, and other rules (such as salary caps and roster caps) designed to promote egalitarianism, competition and parity have flourished.
European soccer is the exact opposite. The number of clubs that can compete in domestic leagues and European competitions has significantly shrunk in the last 40 years. That is partly because there is no salary cap and there is no draft. Obviously, Europe is made up of 50+ countries so to compare it apples to apples to the US is questionable, but if the SEC and B1G pay their players, a bidding war is going to open up that no one else will be able to compete with. It will lead to a small number of teams further concentrating all of the talent and winning every year (has already been happening). This will not be good for the sport.
My big fear is that it will affect college basketball. It has yet to do so as the Big East schools spend just as much if not more than the P5 schools on basketball, but at some point, the football money is going to influence basketball (specifically coaching salaries and player salaries) which will lead to a severe competitive imbalance.
To be honest, I would not be opposed to a system in college basketball where the top 12-15 conferences broke away and paid the players as long as there is a salary cap, and there is a 64-team March Madness style event every year.
The other thing that I think people are forgetting is that European soccer clubs lose a lot of money per year. The B1G and SEC are trying to follow their model. What happens if there is no salary cap? They could possibly bleed themselves to death.
