this is all interesting conversation, but every situation is different- family financials are different for everyone, goals are different for everyone. Heck just within my family with my first two sons we had completely different situations.
first son was a high academic kid, who used football to gain acceptance to a high academic school. There was zero aid, but we were happy that he was accepted. football served it's purpose in this situation. He's now a senior, graduating in may, and has already accepted a job in his chosen field, and for us, it worked like it was supposed to.
Second son is at a high level baseball factory, on a partial baseball scholarship (the other part is family scholarship!) he's chasing his dream to play pro ball one day. we support him wholeheartedly.
who cares what everyone else is doing, figure out what your son's goals are, what he wants out of the sport and out of college and shoot for the best situation you can negotiate for your son's situation.