No disagreement- an Ivy League coach can balance a low academically performing athlete by a recruiting one or many high academically performing athlete.

But a coach can't fill his bulk of his roster with "low academically performing athlete." Since football and basketball team recruits are accepted with the lowest scores, non-revenue sports teams are usually required to present higher AI rosters to Admissions to offset the lower scores of football/basketball players. My impression is that that the SAT 1300 lax-recruited player is more the exception than the rule.

For the Harvard admissions process, A SAT 1300 level student actually gets an academic score of 4 (or borderline 3) on a 5 point score. Normally, only applicants with overall scores of 1-2 make it to the admissions office committee phase to be voted on. So that is a pretty big academic gap compared with the typical non-athlete applicant who makes it to the admission committee evaluation process.


From the Harvard Crimson, "Here’s How the Harvard Admissions Process Really Works"

"In order to score an academic 1, an applicant must be a “potential major academic contributor” with “summa potential” and “near-perfect scores and grades.” It also helps if the high schooler has “national or international level recognition in academic competitions.”

Those who earn an academic 2 typically score in the mid-700s or higher on the SAT — or 33 or higher on the ACT. An academic 3 denotes an applicant with “mid-600 through low-700 scores” on the SAT or a 29 through 32 on the ACT.

A student with an academic 4, meanwhile, typically boasts “low-to mid-600 scores” on the SAT and between a 26 and 29 on the ACT — academic achievements the admissions office call “adequate preparation” for Harvard. Students who draw a 5 academic ranking typically earn SAT scores in the 500s or an ACT score clocking in at 25 or below. Harvard asserts these high schoolers have only “marginal potential.”

The Class of 2023 reading procedures indicate that all applications with a 2- overall score or better should make it to the committee phase. The first reader decides on a case-by-case basis whether those who earn a 3+ will proceed, while those scoring a 3 or worse typically do not advance."