It will depend on $$$. If Kent State and a handful of FCS schools came by some big boosters and decided to form an alternative to the NCAA which paid players, you would see players defect to that league immediately. Not all, but enough to warrant action. NCAA would try to buy off Congress to protect their monopoly.
And that league would last a couple of years, max, hemorrhaging money because the money follows the big programs, their alumni, and long-time fan bases, not the specific players, as evidenced by every other attempt at forming alternative pro leagues, ever.
The current situation where every player gets ~$50k + worth of tuition, housing, food, professional training, etc., each year, tax free, is better than 99.999% of the players could earn playing football anywhere else.
Let all of the 4 and 5 star players abscond to their own minor pro league that no one would watch. Let them make their true market value outside of the universities, and pay taxes, get cut when they are injured or dont perform, etc, and generally experience all of the "glory" of a minor league athlete without major professional backing and subsidizing...the NFL has already shown they aren't willing to front the costs for this. There are hundreds of replacement 3 stars, FCS level guys, and walk-ons that would die to take their place at a big FBS schools. Many would jump at the chance to walk-on and play for free. The big schools with 100 years of history and with hundreds of thousands of generational fans will go on without skipping a beat.
Until the NFL decides it needs to fund it's own developmental league, there is no real money to be made playing football as a professional outside of the NFL or CFL.
