The real capitalist would probably notice that college kids were paid market value the entire time, if we assume they know what "market value" means. What you're really arguing for is some concept of fairness that has nothing to do with the market.
Except they weren't. By far.
The closest thing to a free market to look at is the NFL, where the roster of 53 men is worth 25-30x that of the coach.
Then how in college can coaches make more than 85 players are compensated COMBINED for (using a lofty 100k (nearly all fringes ofc...very little in usable cash let's remember) compensation average).
You can't seriously believe if a free market of colleges directly paying players opened up, every team would just hold steady with a good ole scholarship and room and books. That's hilarious. Those teams would be left behind the very next day.