To be fair, the absurd thing is that in order to have a career in sport he excellent at, he needs to go to university. Not being university material is stupid reason for not being able to do sports professionally.

Agreed. And it's becomming more common in the US pro leagues to see players who only completed high school. But the majority still play at least a year or two at the college level. It's a filter, and D1 college sports is a big business in its own right.