As far as I can tell the Astros and Harbaugh scandals were kind of "first to get caught" situations. Can you imagine Alabama or Texas refusing to do the same thing out of morality or worry about sanctions? Can you imagine the Yankees or Dodgers not stealing signs? I think they were the best at it and got caught and later people were mad because those teams were winning. I would go with the NCAA not being prepared for pay to play, not having anything in place just in case the courts ruled in favor of kids and kind of allowing a decade of lawlessness while the sport dissolved into pure greed.
The entire sport had to know that they would eventually have to pay adults their fair value for being responsible for making billions of dollars. The fact nothing was in place or prepared for is the scandal.