Many students do not have an acceptance when the first board results come out.
My DD got a 4-year to the top 3 schools on her list from the first board. She applied EA to 2 of them. Found out she got in to one of those schools in mid-December.
I think you have 30 days once notified of being a winner to return the form from AROTC stating you will accept the scholarship to “x” school. Her thinking was if she didn’t get accepted EA to that school (Michigan as an OOS applicant is a reach), then she could easily transfer the scholarship.
There are some schools that you can leverage a scholarship for admission. There are a couple elite schools (<10% acceptance rate) out there that may be favorable to an applicant with a 4 year in hand, particularly if applying ED. The Ivies generally don’t give a hoot about the scholarship for admissions purposes, BTW.