I'm not much on the NFL, but the ongoing non-sense with Deflategate and such bears watching. The main reason is that the NFL is grappling with the dual tension of record profits and decreasing public confidence in the leadership of the league.
Sound familiar?
The biggest thing protecting college athletics, particularly the cash cow that is college football, is the autonomy of the conferences. Will that become the reason the NCAA, with their ongoing publicity and discipline investigation failures, ceases to exists?
If you don't think it'll happen because of the money involved, remember, the NFL is the most profitable sports league in the world.