In a recent interview on ESPN, former Oklahoma tailback, Marcus Dupree, told ‘Highly Questionable’ host Dan LeBetard that he was offered $250k a year to play at an unnamed university (that’s over $700,000 a year in 2015, inflation adjusted value). Dupree went on to say that he was also offered an OIL WELL by another school. Yep, an oil well (He says mom made him turn it down). After hearing about this, I did a little research to see who else in college football has or could’ve been cashing in. 
Erick Dickerson. We all know him right? Former SMU running back. Hall of Fame running back from the Rams. He says that he was offered $50,000 in cash by one university to commit there. Dickerson also admitted that he was paid by Southern Methodist. He says he, “never got thousands of dollars or condominiums and all of that kind of stuff,” but if he ever asked for $50 for spending money, he got it.
And then there was Reggie Bush. He’s one of the best to ever play at Southern Cal, but unfortunately he has been disassociated with the football program completely in the last few years; due to an NCAA investigation that uncovered that he and his family received improper benefits that included monetary benefits of about $100,000 and staying, rent free, at the $757,000 home of Michael Michaels; an alleged agent of Bush. SC is just now recovering from sanctions handed down by the NCAA in 2010, that included a two year bowl ban, a vacation of all wins that Bush played in; including the ’05 national championship. The Trojans were also docked 10 scholarships per year for three years.
SMU is said to have received the “death penalty” from the NCAA after there program was suspended for two years. USC has taken about five years to recover from their scandal, and they still are not where they were as a program before it all happened. So the question remains, is paying players worth it? Even if they are the best players? All it takes is for the wrong person to find out and your entire program could be in jeopardy.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say 95% of fans would still say “worth it”. The NCAA retroactively vacating wins doesn’t take away the excitement and energy from the Reggie Bush years at USC. (But karma did bite them on the behind in 2005, so…)
I would peg the number at 100% of fans in the South.
I’d have to agree that most fans would say it’s “worth it.” Just depends on the extent that the ncaa comes down on the program. For example, OSU came out virtually without a scratch from our incident a few years ago, but had we gotten the USC or Penn State treatment, it would change perspective probably.