Steven wrote:
 
>In defense of Army (no pun intended):
>
>They *can't* recruit athletes; they have congressionally mandated admissions
 
>standards, and every applicant must meet those standards; if any happen to
>be exceptional athletes in any sport, that's gravy.
 
>Their student body is truly national; each Representative gets only so many
>slots for members of his/her district; Senators get slots, too.  This means
>that the distribution of students at any service Academy is fairly close to
>the distribution of people within the United States (point being, you only
>get so many kids from Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, etc., then
>you have to hope those are your hockey players and not your basketball or
>football or lacrosse players, because then you have to get your hockey
>players from Georgia, Oklahoma, Idaho, etc)
 
I think that this is a little misleading; I believe that the service
academies have a number of slots available in addition to the one or two
nominations that each Representative can make from their district.  I believe
that I read that the academies have slots specifically reserved for athletes
and others with special skills.  Those slots are over and above the regional
slots.  Thus, Air Force, Navy, and Army are able to bring in a good number
of athletes who might not be academically impressive enough to merit the
nomination of the Congressional representative.  I believe that at most
of the academies, there are several hundred positions reserved for athletes.
If I remember correctly, over half of those athletic slots are for football.
 
Tim Newman
 
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