Recruited athletes are not under the same standards at UCB, but I think you’ll find most athletes (especially in lax) still have fairly high academics because they are usually coming from competitive prep or boarding schools and/or have played on club teams while having to keep up academics. The students only have to meet NCAA requirements for admissions, which is a 2.0 gpa (California schools no longer use test scores so I don’t think athletes need them either). The PAC 12 didn’t have extra requirements, and I don’t think the the ACC does either. Several years ago Wisconsin did limit the football coach when he tried to bring in a lot of jr college transfers who didn’t meet academic standards, but those players were really low academically, not like the difference between a B+ and a B average. Another Big 10 school might have been fine with it, just not Wisconsin.
Schools and coaches can have their own requirements. I know the Yale lax coaches wrote an article about it several years ago that they don’t want to have a struggling student on the team when they can pick from many who are academically superior. Coach said they just stop the recruiting if they feel the academics aren’t up there. Don’t have to be the top top top (like a non-hook applicant), but the coaches want to be assured that the student can handle the academics.