I did have a friend from high school who played softball at Harvard. She had good (not great) grades, and didn't get an athletic scholarship, as there weren't any offered at that time (might be different now). But her family's income qualified her for full tuition plus some assistance for living situation, plus she got the bennies of a D1 athlete.

Coming out of undergrad, she applied to law school, and got into a bunch of schools that probably wouldn't have given her a second look if she wasn't coming from Harvard undergrad. So in her particular situation, it worked out well. If my kid had an opportunity to do something similar, it'd be hard to pass it up. I'm not anticipating that, as any of my kids probably aren't D1 athletes, and I'll almost certainly be making enough money that they'd have to pay sticker price