It has always bothered me that academic institutions let people in for free or for much less tuition and are more lenient on their academics if they are good at sports. Having a physical advantage over other students shouldn’t translate into making it easier to get into a school and pay for it.
Like you said, let them play on minor league teams and if they want to use that money toward tuition, they can.
Unfortunately, there is way too much money invested in college sports in the U.S. for that to happen.