No school has the same academic standards for sports like they do for the regular student body. If so why does the NCAA have a sliding scale for athletes to get cleared. Even Vandy has exemptions on case by case to allow athletes in who would not get in if they were just coming to be a student and not an athlete.I recall something I read in Moneyball. Billy Beane said in the book he turned down a baseball scholarship to Stanford to sign with the Mets out of high school. After his first season, he decided to go to Stanford on his own dime. His application was denied.
So when he was going to play ball, they wanted him there. But when he was just a regular student, he wasn't smart enough to get in. That was the last time I believed Stanford didn't compromise academics for athletics.