Texas Tech won the Big XII last season, and they got more than enough talent this year alone to win again.
The whole point wasn't to play him, but to stick it to the NCAA. A lot of these guys are never going to make it to the NFL, so they want to milk as much NIL as possible. And unfortunately, now we're at that point where we must ask "Okay, how long are you going to actually stick around in college, because you can't spend your entire life playing college football".
Not playing him would probably make some amends, but I think we've crossed that proverbial Rubicon at this point.