Yes, but if football is a fall sport, then the Varsity Football course can only be taken in the fall. There are some sports that span two quarters, but even if the players get 24 (2 credits per quarter x 4 years) credits in ‘Basketball’ he can only use 8 of them and still needs 172 credits in other things. Why does it matter that he can earn 24 basketball credits if he can only use 8?
Stanford doesn’t have a 100% graduation rate for football. This year Christian McCaffrey left in his junior year (I assume he’ll go back and graduate, when time permits). Stanford football players seem to do just fine out in the world even if they got the 8 credits for playing football - Corey Booker, John Elway, John Lynch all have pretty good jobs.