Here is how it is "fair." The Service Academies offer a very difficult path to the professional ranks as the path to graduation is considerably more demanding and the 5-year military service commitment is daunting to those athletes who believe they have a shot to play at the next level after graduation. Only superstars have a remote shot to get out of the commitment (David Robinson, Napoleon McCallum, and most recently the Reynolds kid come to mind). As to the Ivies, they make the choice to not offer athletic scholarships and are technically no different than the non-scholarship FCS Pioneer League (Stetson, Butler, Campbell, Dayton, Davidson, Jax, San Diego, Drake, Marist, Morehead St., Valpo) except that Pioneer League teams are eligible for NCAA Post-Season play (even though most are non-competitive as FCS teams). Yes, even though Harvard has 120 slots and a $37 Billion endowment, they do not play for an FCS Championship...nor does any other Ivy! Harvard's season ends every year with their GAME against Yale. As a matter of fact, if an upper middle class stud athlete chooses to go to an Ivy over Richmond, where he would receive a full athletic scholarship, that kid's parents would have to fork over the appropriate portion of the Ivy League school's $63,000 annual tuition, room and board in order to make that choice. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, there is no scholarship for the kid who chooses Ivy...just the financial aid award that documents like the FAFSA and CSS say that his family deserves (as Ivies will meet the family's full demonstrated financial need). Richmond says it does this, though that it is a subject worthy of debate. Ivies have the endowments, tradition, educational product, and end game job results that make their schools attractive to a great many high-end student-athletes who don't care about playing for a National Championship. That, in my estimation, is how it is "fair."
