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There have been a lot of conference realignment discussions in recent days, and Air Force has been a school involved. There was a lot of interest from the AAC in terms of adding the Falcons to the conference, but they will reportedly stay in the Mountain West.
“Air Force will be reaffirming its commitment to the Mountain West Conference and could soon sign a new grant of rights with the league, according to multiple reports,” An article from CBS said. “Previous intel suggested that Air Force was a target for the American Athletic Conference, which has taken an aggressive stance during the latest round of conference realignment.”
Things in the conference realignment world were quiet for a few months, but things have really ramped up in recent weeks. Big changes will continue to happen, but Air Force won't be involved.
Everything in the conference realignment world creates a chain reaction, and that's what we are seeing right now. Changes have been happening for a couple years now, and it's looking like we are going to get a lot more in the coming weeks. A big reason for all the recent moves/rumblings is the resurgence of the Pac-12, and that has affected Mountain West schools like Air Force.
During the first wave of conference realignment, the Pac-12 took the biggest hit. There was major shakeup in the power five conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Pac-12), but the Pac-12 didn't get anything from it. A lot of changes went into effect this year.
The Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and ACC all made some big moves and they welcomed a lot of additions, but most of them came from the Pac-12. Now, the conference is trying to build itself back up after looking like it would be gone altogether.
Right now, there are just two teams in the Pac-12 as Oregon State and Washington State are the only two schools that didn't find new conferences. The two teams will play each other this year in football, and that is essentially their only conference game. Both teams have scheduling alliances with the Mountain West, the home of Air Force, but they aren't actually in the conference.
Conference realignment is definitely one of the most important things to keep an eye on in college sports right now, and the Mountain West has a lot of teams that are targets for other conferences right now. Air Force will be staying put for now, but the Mountain West is already losing schools to the Pac-12, and there is a chance that more could be leaving soon as well. It's going to be interesting to see which conferences survive these major shakeups.
