If I create a and use ng-options to populate the available options, and if I want to include a default option using a child element but I want that inclusion to be conditional specified with a ng-if directive, then ng-options will duplicate all of the options. If I use ng-show instead of ng-if, all works as I would expect. See the following plunker: http://plnkr.co/edit/eXkvYQvsyPKEjPKEndhZ?p=preview