I'll put it this way. The Ivies are all among the schools that offer the most
athletic opportunities to its student body, both varsity and otherwise. I see
no difference in athletes getting bonus points in admissions than when the
class president of some podunk town's high school gets the same admissions
break, or a master pianist, or actor, or whatever (on a side note, I have no
problem with preferential admission for legacies either). The Ivies want a
well-rounded student body of all races, religions, and abilities, not thousands
of booksmart nerds.

So Dubya got in because of his dad and had an undistinguished academic career.
Big deal. Most of my friends at Dartmouth are having undistinguished academic
careers too - most will graduate with a B or B+ average. Then we'll have some
near-albino pale person that no one has ever met as our valedictorian because
he never left his room and studied even on the party weekends to carry a 3.99
GPA. That's also fine, but there's a helluva lot more to college than just
booksmarts. The admissions people, college presidents, etc. recognize that fact
too, or else they'd change their policies.

I would go so far as to say that probably 75% of all NCAA athletes are students
first. Take out 1A football, basketball, and some hockey/baseball teams, and
the rest are there for an education. The difference with the Ivies is that the
percentage is somewhat higher because they get less of the people who are using
it purely as a stepping stone.