Not all of those will be direct admits. Maybe half. The other half will go to NAPS. Agree with 1994 on his comments. Maybe 20 of those are their top recruits. Less than half of those top recruits would be able to "blue chipped". Majority were marked as "football recruits" that the football team would like to have, but were not prioritized by the team. Essentially, they went through the regular admissions process. Remember that football team travels ~60 folks. Less than half of those 69 will make it 4 years of football. They will lose some at NAPS. 2 year ago my area had 7 football recruits. 2 were direct admits, 5 went to NAPS. 1 of the direct admits is playing today (and do very well). The other young man hung it up and is doing very well at USNA. Out of the 5 NAPS appointees, 1 left NAPS. The other 4 made it to USNA. Only 1 made the travel roster as a Plebe. I will be curious to see if the other 3 stick around or if they fall further on the depth chart.
I only call this all out for those who are being recruited by USNA or any SA... it is a tough road. No matter how great a recruit you are, you have to earn your place on a team. Plebe Summer and Plebe Year is a tough grind and takes it toll. For most teams, they have an attrition rate of over 50% from the start of Plebe Year to finish. My class started with 9. We finished with 3. Make sure you want to be a Mid or Cadet first and a future officer. There are more former athletes who decided to hang it up than there are who stick it out 4 years or were capable of making a roster (this can be challenging as with some teams you have huge recruiting classes with NAPS).
