First off, stop fretting about your friend. Secondly, you friend can not get into any of those schools unless his Academic Index is good enough. Take a look at the Common Data Sets for those schools. there are no students at those schools with 2.5 GPAs-not one. Coaches from schools may send material to a broad range of students-they don’t usually know a student’s GPA until they apply. So it is possible if your friend is good enough to be recruited, he is getting material from coaches but coaches don’t admit students. And even if the coach really wants a student, it is not possible with a 2.5 regardless of connections. (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/sports/before-athletic-recruiting-in-the-ivy-league-some-math.html?_r=0)