The whole "The conferences aren't doing anything to the player, they're doing it to the school" feels like the laziest argument in all of this. Obviously, punishing the school--or even threatening it--affects the player.
It's a clear attempt to circumvent the court orders.
As I said above, Sankey publicly asked the judges to side with the NCAA. When the judges didn't, Sankey made his own rules to give the NCAA what it wanted.
"But they can go to other conferences." Well, Mitchell can. The LSU guys can't go to an SEC, BIG 12, B1G, or ACC school. And going to the MAC is going to put a HUGE dent in their NIL.
And (despite the infinite mentions of anti-trust), most of the state case revolve around financial damages and unfair application of the NCAA rules.