While we are patting ourselves on the back?

Yes, college ranking are not everything and vary a lot depending on your criteria ... but .... did you see the Forbes 2009 list?

West Point:

---- #1 (yes, of all colleges)

Unites States Air Force Academy:

---- #7

United States Naval Academy:

---- #30

From the 2008 rankings:

• West Point rose from #6 to #1.
• USAFA #16 to #7.
• USNA #36 to #30.

The trend is there.

Do we have our priorities right? If not, why? What is causing such a difference between these three schools with roughly the same mission, size, and student pool?

You can review the methodology here.