It depends on the athlete and sport. Some sports have Noms essentially in their pocket to give. These are usually Supt's noms. Remember that there are only 50 Supt's noms total. There are 31 or something D1 teams at USNA. Even if they give 25 of those to some sports teams to use for recruits that is very very few to spread around a few teams. The overwhelming large majority of recruits, except for a few handfuls, are told to apply to all Nom sources. A recruit is still required to qualify 3Q and meet all minimums to be admitted. There is no short application for them. Even if you see an athlete 'committing' there is nothing legally binding to that at Navy as no one signs a National Letter of Intent like other schools. The coaches know if they have met the cut for minimums academically. Kids who do 'sign' are doing it in name only and not anything like they would at another school. So a recruited athlete still could fail their DODMERB and not qualify even after their 'commitment'. The only commitment they sign is the same as a regular candidate... An appointment acceptance. Sometimes the media and kids egos can inflate the process and think they are getting special applications, which is honestly false. In reality these types of 'offers' are extremely rare, a dozen or two total a year.