Recruited athletes and admissions

We all know by now that varsity athletes have a significant leg up in the admissions process. I wouldn't say it's guaranteed acceptance, but a very very very likely. But this also means they can choose to study whatever they want, in whatever college they want, right? Here's a (common) example: I am a crew recruit that just committed to Penn, and am aware of the prestigious Wharton Business School as well as the high employment rate of the engineering school. I was scouted by other colleges with better athletics, but chose Penn because of said college. Though my stats, ECs, and grades are overall lackluster and unrelated to the competitive program I want to major in, I am an athlete, and I get in either way.

There's no way to change this system, but I feel as if this is a very Penn-specific scenario, or Stanford specific (CS), Berkeley specific (Haas and Engineering), USC specific (Film school), basically any school with a college that has a competitive standout. Sure, Harvard is extremely prestigious, but it's more so prestigious overall, there's no real major that screams "I'm the best". Having a Wharton/SEAS degree can get you very different job offers than let's say a psych degree from CAS. I'm not shaming psych or CAS for being the "easier" college to get into, obviously, at the end of the day, you should choose to study something that truly speaks to you, but there are just too many people who have hooks who choose Wharton just for the name. There are so many other applicants (usually without as big of a hook as varsity recruit) who have a genuine interest in business/finance/econ/whatever, are in the stats and grades percentile range, and showed demonstrated interest in their essays and application. It's just sad to see a college like Wharton be filled up with several students that were less "qualified" than several others.

Saddest part is Wharton happens to be the hardest school to get into for "normal" applicants, but also one of the least rigorous in the long run, which is why commits chose it in the first place. I mean, Wharton is what, 15% athletes? Doesn't sound like a lot, and not saying they're completely undeserving of this spot at Penn Wharton, just saying there's tons of applicants out there who may have made better use and interest of their spot