One solution would be to treat the athletes as employees, not students, pay them a salary
you recommending we pay the archery and volleyball teams as well...?
“you recommending we pay the archery and volleyball teams as well...?”
No need, the members of those teams are most likely literate, and their primary purpose is to attend school, and secondarily do sports. The majority of the football and basketball players are only there to play sports and could care less about academics. It is a waste of time and resources to have everybody pretend they are students