“Regular Admit” doesn’t mean they went through the general "regular’ process. It means, for athletic admissions, that they were otherwise qualified for admission to the university like Missy Franklin, who was a top student at a top school. Missy is a ‘regular admit’, but on the athletic department.
Cal has received about 65k applications for this year. Let’s say that 40k of those are students who have the qualifications set by the Board; they have the GPA, they have the high school courses to get in, their essays are acceptable. If Cal had 40k seats for freshmen, they’d all be in because they are all qualified. The other 25k are going to be rejected unless they somehow get a special admit through athletics or another program.
Let’s say there are 200 recruited athletes the coaches have made offers to and told to apply. And let’s say that 160 of those 200 will be part of those 40k qualified for application (Missy and 80% of all recruits by 2017) and 40 are in the group of 25k who would normally be rejected from admission as not meeting the qualifications set by the Selection Board.
What are the chances of those 140 being picked out of the 40k for say 10k acceptances if they are just in the ‘regular’ pile on the AO’s desk? Statistically, only ~40-50 would be admitted if they were part of the regular admissions pool. They aren’t. All 160 are going to be accepted. Those other 40 will also be admitted as ‘special admits.’ Yes, all 200 will be admitted.
There can only be a percentage of special admits (will be capped at 20% this year or next). They are not trying to move Missy and other qualified applicants to the ‘special admit’ process because there isn’t enough room at Cal to accept all 40k qualified students.