Who are the rivals of the Air Force Falcons Football team?

The academy's intercollegiate program has 17 men's and 10 women's NCAA sanctioned teams, nicknamed the Falcons.[68] Men's teams compete in football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, cross-country, fencing, golf, gymnastics, indoor and outdoor track, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo and wrestling. In 1991 the wrestling team won the WAC championship, which was the first ever by any USAFA sports team. Women's teams include basketball, cross-country, fencing, gymnastics, indoor and outdoor track, swimming and diving, soccer, tennis and volleyball. The Academy fields a coeducational team in rifle. In addition, the Academy also sponsors two non-NCAA programs: cheerleading and boxing. The Academy also has several club sports, such as rugby, that compete at an intercollegiate level outside of the NCAA.[73]

The men's and women's programs compete in NCAA's Division I, with the football team competing in Division I FBS. Most teams are in the Mountain West Conference; however, the wrestling team competes in the Big 12 Conference, the gymnastics teams compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation; the men's soccer team competes in the Western Athletic Conference;[74] the men's hockey team competes in Atlantic Hockey, the water polo team competes in the Western Water Polo Association, the coeducational rifle team competes in the Patriot Rifle Conference, and as of the next lacrosse season in 2022, the men's lacrosse team competes in the ASUN Conference. The men's boxing team competes in the National Collegiate Boxing Association. For a number of years, only the men's teams competed in Division I. Women's teams competed in Division II and were once members of the Continental Divide Conference, then the Colorado Athletic Conference. With new NCAA legislation, beginning in 1996, women's teams also competed in Division I.[citation needed]


Presentation of the Commander in Chief's Trophy to the Air Force Falcons, 2 May 2017
Air Force has traditional service academy rivalries with Navy and Army. The three service academies compete for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy in football each year. Air Force Falcons football has had the best showing of the three, winning the trophy 18 of its 34 years. The Academy also has an in-state rivalry with Colorado State University, which is located in Fort Collins and is a fellow member of the Mountain West Conference.[75][citation needed]

The boxing team, led for 31 years by Coach Ed Weichers, has won 18 national championships.[76] The Academy's men's and women's rugby teams have each won multiple national championships and the women's side recently had two players selected for the United States national team.[77] The football team has played in 17 bowl games and the basketball team has had strong showings in the last several years, qualifying for the NCAA tournament and, most recently, making the final four of the 2007 NIT Tournament.[78] The men's ice hockey team won the last two Atlantic Hockey conference tournaments, made the first ever appearance by a service academy in the NCAA hockey tournament in 2007, and made a repeat appearance in 2008. The Air Force Academy's Men's Hockey team recently lost in the "Elite Eight" of hockey in double overtime. This marked the farthest they had gone in the post-season in school history and the longest an Atlantic Hockey Association team has made it into the post-season.[79]

The track and field team has had national and international success. Three women won Division II NCAA titles before the women's team moved to Division I competition: Gail Conway (outdoor 400 meters in 1983, outdoor 800 meters in 1984); Jill Wood (indoor 1500 meters in 1988); and Callie Calhoun (indoor and outdoor 3000 meters and outdoor 5000 meters in 1990, indoor 3000 meters and outdoor 10,000 meters in 1991).[80] Three athletes have also won Division I NCAA outdoor titles: Jim Murphy in the 5000 meters in 1964, Dana Pounds in the javelin in 2005 and 2006, and Mahala Norris in the steeplechase in 2021.[81] 1983 alumnus Alonzo Babers won gold medals in the 400 meters and the 4x400 meter relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.[82]

In 2014, Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson responded to reports of allegations of sexual assault and drug use at a December 2011 party by calling for a review of the athletic department by the inspector general.[83]

The Air Force Academy Football team has a rivalry with Colorado State University as well as with Army and Navy.