Case in point: Dayan Lake. 

Lake was an NCAA academic non-qualifer coming out of high school. For 98% of the NCAA FBS schools, or those in conferences and abiding by agreed upon conference rules, that means he's not immediately eligible to play and must get his associate degree from a JC or CC before he can transfer to an FBS school.

(This is how we lost Star Lotulelei when we were in the MWC. He committed to us but was a non-qualifer so he had to go to Snow College and get his associate degree. In the meantime, we quit recruiting him and Utah scooped him up). 

Because we're independent we can handle non-qualifers differently - he just had to redshirt and show academic progress. I'm sure he was closely monitored his first year, and the coaches had to write the letter to the admissions office, but . . .

BYU and Umass ARE LITERALLY THE ONLY SCHOOLS IN THE COUNTRY WHERE DAYAN LAKE OR ANY ACADEMIC NON-QUALIFER CAN STILL ENROLL, AND JUST REDSHIRT, INSTEAD OF GOING TO A JC/CC AND GET AN ASSOCIATE DEGREE FIRST!!!!! 

That's a potential huge advantage we have in recruiting, but it gets swept under the rug because we don't want BYU to get that kind of academic reputation. And we don't want to start targeting low academics performers as a recruiting strategy. However, there are many, many, many student athletes, and in particular, football players, still getting into BYU that would never come close to qualifying if they were regular students. 

The too tough admissions standards excuse for BYU's poor performance is a joke/myth CB loves perpetuating.