Report: Air Force, Cincinnati to cancel Future Football Series

By Kevin Kelley -
Cincinnati Bearcats
Cincinnati and Air Force will reportedly cancel their future series. (Frank Victores-US PRESSWIRE)

Air Force and Cincinnati will likely cancel their 2015 and 2017 home-and-home football series, according to Air Force senior associate athletic director Rick Trego.

Trego told Frank Schwab of Gazette.com that Cincinnati approached them about canceling the series and “that is probably the direction we will go.”

Yesterday, Cincinnati associate director of athletics Doug Mosley told us via email that there have been “discussions about possible changes to the series.” Since the cancellation is not yet official, Mosley was likely not able to make a definitive statement on the series.

The two schools were set to meet in Cincinnati on Sept. 12, 2015 and in Colorado Springs on Sept. 2, 2017. The only other time they have played was way back in 1961.

If the cancellation does occur, Air Force will only have Army and Navy on their future schedules from 2014 forward. Their 2013 non-conference schedule includes Colgate (Aug. 31), at Navy (Oct. 5), Notre Dame (Oct. 26) and Army (Nov. 2).

Cincinnati’s future non-conference schedule is not as bare. The Bearcats currently have four games slated for 2013 and 2014 and three in 2015 if you don’t count Air Force.

Football Schedules:

Comments (12)

Air Force has cancelled the 15-16 series with Oklahoma and 15/17 series with Cincy. What’s up? Are they about to make a Big East announcement? What gives?

Agreed. There must be a big announcement coming up. Hard to believe these moves are coincidental.

The Air Force writers haven’t caught wind of any Big East move, at least that I know of.

Oklahoma State likely wanted to cancel because they had too many games in 2015. When they scheduled the series, the Big 12 was playing 8 conference games and four non-conference. Now they are playing a nine-game conference schedule.

And Cincinnati approached Air Force about canceling that series, not the other way around. So I don’t think Air Force is clearing their slate for a conference move.

I more wonder if it’s an announcement they’re going to the Big 12. The Big East is up to 12 in a couple years. They shouldn’t need to add anything unless someone else is leaving. The Big 12 seems like the conference who needs a couple teams the most to get back to 12 to have a CCG, which I hope becomes mandatory, because most conferences will be having one, and it’s only fair to have it level for the playoff.

Honestly, I think Air Force would be a nice addition to the Big East. It would help balance out the geography of the western half of the football conference, providing a bridge between Texas and Idaho/California. Wouldn’t they have to have an “East” and “West” division makeup now? It would also be nice to see Air Force and Navy in the same conference.

Then, it’s too bad that Oklahoma State and Cincinnati are switching out decent games against Air Force and keeping cupcakes like Central Arkansas, UTSA, and Alabama A&M. That’s not good for I-A college football.

OK State is playing Sun Belt conference member South Alabama not Alabama A&M

get it right

Why would Cincinnati dump Air Force and then go with a moderate upgrade from the same part of the country in BYU?