Gonna be brutally honest here because those amazing stories are one in a million at USC and you are looking at tennis as the pull??? So…your gpa is super low and your tennis isn’t anywhere in the range. USC is a top 10 tennis team, always has been, was number 1 for several years in the last decade. They typically know who they are looking at and trying to get years in advance and they don’t use scouts, coaches do attend tournaments (which includes the later rounds at Kalamazoo and junior slams because that is the level they are looking for). Top 300 in California or even the country is not their target player. Coming in with a 2.8 even for a blue chip player can be a tough sell - tennis players are a smarter bunch than your average recruited athlete. No way a tennis coach at a top tennis school, which certainly includes USC, is gonna play the favor card with admissions to pull in a 2.8 gpa that isn’t a blue chip. And even a blue chip or top ITF player with that gpa can be a challenge to get past admissions. Remember, they recruit throughout the entire world to typically bring on 2 players, at most 4 a year, depending on the number of seniors moving on. It is selective as it gets, this isn’t football with a giant roster. They find stellar players in the US or internationally with great or at least solid academics.
Your gpa also doesn’t coincide with your projected AP test scores. Someone with a 2.8 typically isn’t getting all 4s and 5s, but then your SAT is crazy good. Not sure how that all happened. So are you just a really smart underachiever?
Certainly apply and use the entrepreneurship angle throughout - that is way more your strength. But still a very long shot, because there are applicants with that strength and a 4.0. It’s just very competitive. So hope, but be real and apply broadly.
Not sure what to think about legacy - Nikias pretty much voided the importance of legacy, or at least diminished its importance greatly - not sure if that will change much in the future. It’s more about your family member having a direct relationship with someone in a position to do something than simply being a legacy.