Although everyone is entitled to an opinion, it's a shame that people will assume because of his position as a former college president Henry Bienen has some insight into the situation. In reality he has absolutely no understanding of collective bargaining or this area of the law. If the players had been found to have collective bargaining rights it does not at all follow that they would receive compensation beyond the scholarships that they already receive. Even if hypothetically their union demanded it, no employer has to agree to anything simply because a union demands it. More importantly, the Union would not demand additional compensation beyond scholarships unless the NCAA gave private schools the ability to grant it. The players' primary interest is in playing NCAA football. Their union is not going to make any demands that would result in the expulsion of a team from participation in NCAA sanctioned games. The NCAA is the body that determines what players can have and can't have. The problem with the petition from the start was that the union had to name Northwestern and not the NCAA as the Employer. The NCAA could and would veto any bargaining demand it wanted simply by informing NU that granting it would result in sanctions against the school. Here's an example. Shortly after the petition was filed the NCAA permitted schools to award scholarship players the "true cost of attendance". (This sudden decision was no doubt in response to the petition and was intended to affect the outcome of the election, but technically was not an unfair labor practice only because the NCAA was not considered the employer.) If the NCAA had not permitted its member schools to expand scholarships to include the "true cost of attendance" and NU in response to a union demand had granted this benefit, it would have been required to rescind the benefit in order to continue its participation in the association. Sure there are some things that unionized college players could bargain over without running afoul of the NCAA, (issues raised by Kain Colter e.g. medical care), but these issues would hardly change the landscape of college athletics along the lines described by Henry Bienen.
