I tend to agree with both @Golfgr8 and @cinnamon1212 . Elite college AOs know all about the academic BSs, but coaches outside the Northeast may not or simply may not care a whit, and some coaches in the Northeast may only care depending on whether it’s a hard recruitment or a soft recruitment situation.
Our experience has been, when using one of the coach’s “virtually no questions asked” recruitment spots (the magic 2-4 spots on a team), coaches could not care less what school a kid is coming from - only matters whether they can help the team win and enhance the coach’s status. As long as GPA and test score minimums are achieved, or it’s an SAT optional school and the kid is told not to submit the SAT, they know the kid is going to be admitted if they apply ED.
When the coach is at an elite Northeast college/university, and especially a NESCAC, and the coach is merely supporting a kid at admissions for a non-recruitment spot, they may care what school a kid comes from because they want some certainty the kid will be well received at Admissions and accepted without the “guaranteed” recruitment spot. Then they start gaming the “SAT optional/ED-EA/Academic Index” stuff.
When the coach is at a non-Northeast school, I feel in general, the coach only cares about the kid’s talent and stated GPA and test scores, and won’t dig deep on GPA and what it really means about a kid’s academic record. In other words, they don’t care that Smith Academy is amazing and has grade deflation, it’s a hassle for the coach to deal with the subtleties. I feel this is the case at some strong schools in the Midwest (Notre Dame, Michigan) and in the Southeast (Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA, Emory).
All AOs know and care about the great boarding schools and their curriculum and rigor. Outside the Northeast, not sure the same can be said for coaches.