As a referee, there are 100% for certain some players who make these egregious targeting hits with the intent to do so. The 15 yard penalty is worth it to them, and their coaches don't usually make a big deal out of it to the guilty player. I see several intentionally malicious hits every season. Watching college football as a fan I see far fewer hits that I would call malicious.

The automatic ejection is effective in getting those hits out of the game for the most part.

Do I think the one yesterday was malicious? No. But ejection sends a clear message that over all has made college football safer than high school.