He’s basically right. The overwhelming majority of NCAA Division I basketball players are unqualified for and uninterested in the academic programs offered by the colleges and universities that they attend. It’s a farce to classify them as student-athletes when everyone know they’re really only there to play basketball. Going through the motions of earning a degree in sociology or similar really doesn’t to them any favors and wastes university resources that might otherwise be devoted to actual students.
Also college football.
At the Big 10 university I attended most of the football players were getting Health & Physical Education degrees (HPE). The HPE department teachers were mainly a bunch of overpaid gym teachers who coddled the sports players. They actually had a class that was nothing but fly tying and canoeing. A ten week class on tying flies and canoeing, and getting credit to boot!
At that time the University had what was called University Requirements. These were a number of certain types classes that every student had to take (Humanities, English, History or Social Studies, and at least one Political Science class). Every student enrolled in the university expecting to earn and receive a degree had to take those classes. I found out that the athletes had free tutors available to "help" them with every single class that fell under the umbrella of University Requirements.
Duke and Kentucky operate a basketball camp under the umbrella of a university.
Create a league around 18 to 21 year olds. At 21 if they are not drafted they can go to college.
They don't have time.
Go to college on a football scholarship and tell coach you want to major in mechanical engineering. See how long you stay on the team. If these guys aren't traveling to games, they're at practice. If they're not at practice, they're at the gym. Homework? Studying? Ain't nobody got time for that!
There's a reason athletes major in underwater basket weaving. There's not time for much else.