I like this thread. Obviously sports are good, getting into college is not everything. But at some point many kids may choose to lean into something to help get into a school that they want.
I’ve seen the opposite, where kids go to less elite schools because they live their sport so much they really want to play in college.
But I think the point of this is that there is a lot of pressure on the sporty child, and a more opaque understanding of how colleges value that is good.
I have a college athlete daughter and I have another who loves a sport that doesn’t get her into college (and she was nationally ranked) It’s been great to have the sport that was never confused with college or scholarships, whereas other daughter always had coaches from 5th grade telling her about playing in college.
It’s a lot and it’s misleading. If kids know it probably doesn’t help more than a club that takes a fraction of the time and they still want to play just as much. That’s the best situation IMO.