Not 100% sure, but when you don't qualify academically, it's not because your grades aren't up to par with those the school requires, but rather what the NCAA requires. Those #'s you rattled off are for the general student body, not athletes. Athletes are held to lower standards, so they only need to meet a minimum GPA and SAT/ACT that the NCAA puts forth, not the school. So the athletic admissions for Arkansas and Syracuse are the same for athletes.
From the NCAA Eligibility page on being eligible to enroll under a full scholarship:
- Earn at least a 2.3 grade-point average in core courses.
- Meet an increased sliding-scale standard (for example, an SAT score of 1,000 requires a 2.5 high school core course GPA)
- Successfully complete 10 of the 16 total required core courses before the start of their senior year in high school. Seven of the 10 courses must be successfully completed in English, math and science.