Even if schools are not who is paying them?
yes, because in this hypothetical, it’s the schools that are setting a salary cap.
There’s two potential ways to a salary cap that I can think of.
One, congress grants the ncaa an antitrust exemption. This is not going to happen in today’s world. Zero percent chance.
Two, the ncaa declares student athletes employees. Student athletes unionize, likely by sport. Unions and NCAA collectively bargain. This would likely be the straw that breaks the camels back in terms of the power 5 separating from the ncaa.
In pro sports, you have competing interests driven largely by the size of the markets. Your NY’s and LA’s subsidize to some degree your OKC’s and Minnesota's. It’s done for the good of the game. Likewise, on the players union side, there’s far more players simply trying to crack a lineup or make a team than there are lebrons (think in terms of union votes). This results in stars sacrificing some of their earning potential to be distributed to average/below average players.
The member institutions in the ncaa are too different in terms of resources to find a common ground imo. And the power 5 is already constantly giving the impression they think they can break off on their own and be quite successful (follow the private equity dollars).
