[ You damn right athletes at the academies are treated differently. My roommate while I was at West Point was a "recruited" football player. He had to attend the WPPS (West Point Preparatory School) in order to get his academics up to standard to attend West Point. Look at the football roster at West Point and notice how many of the kids list WPPS as their prep/high school.
ALL of the cadets are Congressional "nominees" - each congressman nominates a certain number (used to be 5) to each academy, but they still have to compete against one another and have a minimal SAT/ACT score to attend. Just because you're nominated doesn't mean you will be accepted. There are also presidential and vice presidential nominations.
