The "story" is that Lew Alcindor ended up at UCLA with Wooden for $125,000 - St. Johns (with Joe Lapchick) "only" offered $100,000. That was in 1967 dollars - or about that date.
The price offered (not by Auburn) - ON TAPE FOR GOODNESS SAKES - for Cam Newton was something like $250,000 or $300,000 - in the form of a loan to help build Cam Newton's father's church (he was a minister of some sorts, I think). Still cannot believe the NCAA did not rule Cam Newton ineligible after the fact, which would have meant Auburn vacating all its wins with him, its national championship with him, and Newton giving up his Heisman Trophy. Their reasoning was there was no evidence CAM NEWTON HIMSELF knew about the money offers. This despite the extremely crystal clear NCAA rules that state a player is ruled ineligible if he OR HIS FAMILY are even just OFFERED "benefits" that ordinary students would not be reasonably expected to receive - and the NCAA rules are actually specific that it does not matter if the student athlete knew or not, or whether the "benefits" were delivered - just offered.