...should be allowed to "buy out" student athletes contract penalties because they can do the same for head coaches?

or

You're proposing that the "contracts" for student athletes not be allowed to offer any protections whatsoever to the colleges who also sign the contracts? Generally speaking, an agreement that is so one-sided as that is not really a contract. And if you actually do allow that, how are you going to prevent the former issue? Because that is in large part what the current rules are designed to prevent.