Sometimes this means that someone graduating from a university with a decent degree when the average intake grades were comparatively low shows they are and are capable of outperforming to a greater extent. They don't have to evidence themselves as legitimate geniuses, just that they have the capacity to develop faster.
Obviously it then comes down to bias about whether the university is just scoring people higher, but that's a whole different ballgame.
Brand name universities still get the preferential treatment though, often because they have more developed alumni links with the hiring companies.
...but by then, you'd have crushed your early career and gone off and gotten a prestigious Master's Degree, or founded your own company and sold it to one of the bigger fish, earning your way into Sr Leadership...
One of those is top 5%, the other is sub-50%. It seems a stretch to say the biggest problem the NC A&T group faced was not being invited to the right parties.
SAT isn't the be-all and end all, but those difference are far too large to be brushed aside. It is not at all obvious that race is the major factor here.
There is a case here that the recruiters were being realistic; the smart black candidates would presumably be working to get into some university other than NC A&T. The CS program entrants would need to look like legitimate geniuses compared to the average to qualify for red carpet treatment.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_Agricultural_an...