Balls please! What are you on?
There are good coaches out there if you look. Granted colleges are noticed for winning, and one way of winning is by recruiting the best talent to your college.
There's a college out West that seems to be the "Black Hole of some of the best American High School distance talent" once inside the program, you don't hear about them anymore.
If you look into some D2 and D3 colleges they don't tend to get as many of the top talented athletes as in D1 and therefore they have to develop the men and women, many of whom are American athletes.
There are many stories out there of people walking onto teams and earning scholarships. Tennessee's top 800 meter runner was a 2:16ish in high school, she recently ran a 2:02 at regional