Since the money isn't coming directly from the schools, it's not directly costing the schools anything to make these payments. And since more players will be inclined to stay in school longer, the quality of play is likely to increase. (It'll never be as good as the NBA, but talented players staying and accruing more experience does generally line up with higher quality games.)

And with SAT scores going away and payments now done legally instead of through illegal wires and bagmen, they no longer have to go through as much of the stupid "vacating games/banning postseasons" horseshit (unless it's something truly egregious).

It's kind of the perfect thing for the NCAA, really. I highly doubt NIL will have a negative impact on college athletics as a whole. Most of the things people complain that NIL is making worse were already existing trends for college sports anyway.

The only "bad thing" that may happen for the NCAA is that fans will demand a "NIL cap." Which I'm fairly sure they can't legally implement-- and they wouldn't really attempt to implement as a result. But even then, I'm sure they'll just shrug their shoulders, say "sorry," and life will continue to go on.