It depends on the level of athletes because athletes compete and win and represent a college if an athlete wins a specific medal or reaches a specific target in their sport then they should be given a reward in money. You also have to look at the fact that college sports is an extracurricular activity compared to studying which is the main goal of colleges so college willingness to allocate budget to paying athletes monthly is obviously not high or even there sometimes the reason the colleges keep these students is because they represent the college so yes if the athletes represent and take the college to a specific level for examples lets say nationals then they should be given a reward in money or atleast a fee waiver

Sports isn't a job for the masses but an athlete is an elite player of a sport schools paying salaries encourages them to keep up the hardwork and represent their school at a bigger stage being an athlete is not an easy task so schools have to support the students in their schools which study and do sports saying your gut says that is a bad fit proves nothing and your central arguement is also hollow. Athletes enjoy sports every player of any sport can enjoy a sport that does not mean the entirety of college sports is a job that needs full dedication

A college paying football salaries while smaller sports get nothing is clearly because a school would pay on how many people watch the sport how many people was the college represented to . It would be like arguing why a game with a huge player base would have bigger prizes for esports tournaments compared to a small game that has lower watchers which directly causes lower budget. Smaller sports should also get pay it would be unfair but they should get pay equal to their competitiveness and factors like that a player from a smaller sport generally has a smaller competing pool compared to the giant which is football which has a greater competing pool which requires you to be more elite and competitive and work more