The schools make tons of money, the administrators make tons of money, there's lots of shady activity, the NBA gets a free training ground for future players (such as it is at the present time) - and the ones getting screwed are the kids who attend the school as students, pay for the privilege and windup thousands and thousands of dollars in debt.
I agree that there appears to be some type of market dislocation re: college. It really shouldn't cost $100-200k to get a bachelor's degree. I think the FBI could try a case for 20 years before even thinking about the cost of education for normal people. IMO this, like so many other things, will be an issue that will be kicked down the road for future generations to deal with.
Ayton, Miller, and Arizona are done for the year. Shaq's kid just decommitted. I'm sure this will hurt Arizona for a couple years, but let's be honest: they'll be back. Other programs will continue to bribe to get the best talent.
Paying Ayton $100k is over the line. Too much money to be considered even close to reasonable for some type of recruiting trip.
Flying in recruits and their families, putting them up at a decent hotel and taking them all out to nice restaurants seems like a decent guideline for recruiting. The issue is that many top athletes have already unofficially signed with agents while in AAU, and those agents go to work to prove their worth to their young clients. It's a competitive enterprise and college basketball coaches are ruthless.
It's going to take intensive government monitoring to stop these actions.