Graduate students have to do research, 40-80 hours a week, have it reviewed, and such to stay in good standing. After the first year or two, they don't have classes (or at least very many). Normal undergrad scholarships just require you to take classes -- pretty much any you want -- and get good grades.

Athletics is more like graduate stipends than student scholarships. The current system is a good deal for some, and a crappy deal for others. That's why a free-market would be better - for those who want the current deal, they'd be perfectly free to take it. Others could take the cash.

Also, the $80k isn't a real $80k. Tuition, etc, isn't really $80k per student. Those are the "retail" prices paid by well-off, underperforming students to subsidize the rest. It would be fairer to compare the average real-costs as the "market" value of those benefits.