So that's somewhere between 10% and 20% of the football team? Or if there are 800 D1 athletes at USAFA then somewhere between 80 and 160 are "special" recruits that may not have had to meet the usual application standards? This speculation thing is great.
No, you can't use that type of math. Why? Because many of the D1 type sports at the academy are very small in participants, and they simply fill the team from the available appointees. Football for instance has a team of 80+ players. That's why they bring in 50+ players in the freshman year. So they can keep 15-20 of them over time.
Now if you want to believe that 5-10 appointee out of 1200 who happen to be high end D1 football athletes is still too many; then you'd have to have that same argument against all forms of diversity. But in order to do that, you'd have to first change the law. Title 10 of the U.S. Code allows each representative and senator to have "X" number of constituents at the academy at any one time. This is a form of diversity too. It allows EQUAL representation to all 50 states and territories. And if the representatives and senators WANTED to exercise their legal responsibilities; that approximately 535 appointments a year that the academy would have absolutely NO SAT SO in whether they get in or not. As long as they meet the minimum requirements, the academy would HAVE TO TAKE THEM if the MOC made them their principal nominee.
Throw in another 200 per year on average for military related slots. That's a total of around 750 appointments that are diversified. That's leaves 300-500 remaining appointments. So, if you want to complain about D1 level athletes, then you have to simply complain about ALL diversity in general. And that's what the conversation should really be about. Not athletes. Why should the #1 principal nominee from the 12th district of california, with a 3.60 gpa and 25 ACT scores, be automatically given an appointment because their representative MADE THEM THEIR PRINCIPAL Nominee? Well, that's the law. "If the MOC chooses to make them the principal".
Bottom line is that some here believe that the 1100-1200 appointments should be to the 1100-1200 HIGHEST SCORED APPLICATIONS. And it doesn't matter if all 1100-1200 happen to be White guys from Texas, that's who should get it. Unfortunately, the military enlisted members, who all these new officers will be LEADING, are not all White guys from Texas. They are as diverse as you can imagine. So should the academies be. And if "some" of these diverse appointments can also go to a small number of high end athletes who also meet all the academy requirements, and successfully pass the same academic requirements that the other non-IC athletes are required to do; then more power to them. Especially if it helps the academy overall in many areas.
I still feel that some in this conversation believe that there's this large number of individuals who are athletes, getting special treatment. As Flieger suggested, I recommend not posting any more until you've contacted Dr. Mueh, the current Air Force Academy Athletic Director, and ask him for the specific number of IC athletes that came into the class of 2015 with "Special Consideration/nominations/etc..." and wasn't in the NORMAL pool of competition with other applicants in their district, state, or national pool. Then you'll have the answers you're looking for. But until you have the exact numbers, your conspiracy theories hold no more weight than anyone else telling you that's it's not that significant.
