People are fed up with the status quo. They know that the majority of top programs in college sports are paying students under the table, and they are sick of never knowing whether a NCAA title will be vacated or not even after its won.
So they tasked you with cleaning it up. Do it however you like, just make it so that competition will be as fair as you can make it, and make it so all D-1 schools have objectively the same shot. Also make it as realistic as possible.
As some have already mentioned, I think there are a few very simple things that can be done, but the NBA has to go along with it...
1) Allow high school players (or players of any age) to enter the draft
2) Expand the draft to 4 rounds, and expand the rosters by 2 or 3 slots
3) Much like college baseball, implement a rule that allows for the drafting of the following players: high school, juniors or seniors from 4-year colleges, or JUCO players of any age.
4) Allow teams to maintain the draft rights of players for 3 years.
5) Allow players to re-enter the draft at a later time if they opt out of their initial draft position and choose to go to college or play overseas for 3 years.
6) Allow NBA franchises to front-load rookie salaries via signing bonuses, like the NFL and MLB, without impacting the salary cap space
7) I would like to see players allowed to sign with an agent for a "test period" to allow each player time to explore his options. Let's say...up to 6 months prior to draft day.
8.) Players should be allowed to withdraw their names from the draft pool up to one day before the draft, without losing their amateur status. I really don't care if this makes Chad Ford's job harder. Either this, or all players who go undrafted should be allowed to retain amateur status and to go to school.
9) Increase the living stipend for 4-year scholarship athletes, and make it adjusted by financial need. Cap it at 20,000 per year, index it to inflation.
10) All D-1 scholarships should be 4 years, not 1-year renewable.
11) All D-1 players should be allowed to transfer schools without the requirement of sitting out a semester.
12) Abolish the Letter of Intent.
13) ...and I am not a huge fan of this, but...cap D-1 coaches salaries at the salary of the school president.
I would not expect all of these issues to be implemented. I don't think they would all necessarily rid college sports of booster payments and shady recruitment deals.
But I think allowing more players to be drafted, and allowing them to make substantial money RIGHT AWAY via signing bonuses, will draw most of the players who want money RIGHT NOW to the NBA draft. That really is the problem with money in college sports - it is not that the kids necessarily need the money, though a lot of them do. It's that the money is there, and any of us would take it if it was offered to us. By getting the NBA to offer this money instead, you'll get most of the kids who don't want to go to school to the pros and into the D-league or Europe.