Air Force could follow CSU in ditching Mountain West for new home

The Mountain West may call Colorado Springs home, but the conference’s team that plays in the city looks to be on the way out as reports surfaced this week of the Air Force Falcons being a serious candidate for conference realignment.

The latest news is a reaction to a reaction to a reaction—all involving Colorado schools. As the Pac-12 collapsed after UCLA and USC left for the Big Ten, Colorado was the first to jump ship for the Big 12, as a race began for those West Coast schools to find a new home. Soon all that was left were Oregon State and Washington State and in rebuilding the historic power, last week the conference announced Colorado State among four current Mountain West schools soon to be joining. The move by the Buffs and the reaction by the Rams has pushed the Mountain West to the brink and now those schools are looking for a new home headlined this week by the Air Force Academy, which is getting a real look by the American Athletic Conference (AAC,) according to ESPN.

The move would put the Falcons among their service academy brethren with Army and Navy already members of the AAC for football. Both the Black Knights and Midshipmen are members of the Patriot League off the gridiron.

For Air Force, this would land them a safer home as the Mountain West schools are booking it all while the conference will either look to elevate some FCS schools or play FCS football. However, the Falcons would have to travel quite a bit more with Florida Atlantic, East Carolina and Temple all being east-coast schools in the conference. But there are four football-playing schools in states near Colorado and a fifth in Wticha State that plays all the sports but football.

The AAC and Pac-12 are now in a race to separate themselves as the fifth-best conference behind the Power Four of the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.

With Colorado State’s departure and Air Force seemingly on the taxiway for takeoff, this would leave Wyoming as the only semi-local school still in the Mountain West. This also means the end to plenty of rivalries within the region, including New Mexico, that other conferences simply won’t capture as each wants just a single representative per market.

Related

Shedeur Sanders won’t be the Week 1 starter for the BrownsShedeur Sanders makes a statement in bid to earn Browns’ starting spotThey were briefly Broncos; now they want back into college footballCU Buffs’ Pac-12 champion joins Nuggets coaching staffDeion Sanders says injured top WR Danny Scudero will play in season openerDeion Sanders visits Shedeur Sanders at Browns camp