FWIW, the only schools out there that require more than the minimum GPA and SAT score to get into are Duke, Stanford, Vandy, and NW and even those schools have greatly reduced their requirements for football players. As long as you meet the minimum, you'll have no problem getting into Michigan, UVa, Berkeley, etc for football. The idea that Michigan didnt offer Baldwin because of grades is ridiculous. Nobody cares about grades anymore. If he was a partial or non-qualifer, that's different but he wasnt.
This is an incredibly simplistic view of admission standards for athletes by university. Sure you can cite individual examples of athletes meeting the minimum standards at pretty much ANY D1 P5 institution, I can assure you that it is far more complex than what you are laying out. Grades DO matter at many places and are assuredly a part of the recruiting process at Michigan. There are all kinds of factors in play that you are dismissing, but it is entirely possible for a school like Michigan (or Pitt, for that matter) to back off a athlete because of grades, when that student may have grades that are similar to another athlete that is accepted in another year, another sport, another individual situation. I'm not saying this is the case with Baldwin, I have no idea what the situation was, but it is entirely possible.that academics were an issue in his recruitment.