Not so much the concept in itself of young players developing in their high school and later college teams instead of simply junior branches of professional sports teams, as the way these college sports have become in some cases almost more popular than the professional leagues (like the "March Madness". And if the article is right about the "40 hours" that those student-athletes spend on their sports per week, that really does lead one to wonder if universities might not just as well drop the pretense and simply hire these athletes as employees for their sports team, since their education seems to be mostly for show anyway.
It would also make the point in the article about what happens to student-athletes whose sports career is prematurely terminated due to heavy injuries quite valid - if the university can just kick them out at that point, then no wonder that they at least want to be paid for the time they did perform - and in proportion to the gains they brought for the university.