The American Athletic Conference is showing increasing interest in adding the Air Force as a member to bring all three military academies into the same league for the first time, a person familiar with the AAC discussions told the Associated Press on Monday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because conference officials do not make their internal discussions public.

ESPN first reported that the American had his sights set on Air Force, a founding member of the Mountain West, which is now the next conference in danger of losing in another Wave of realignment.

Last week, the Pac-12 announced Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State would leave the Mountain West to join Oregon State and Washington State in a restructured Conference of Champions beginning in 2026.

The Pac-12 still has to add at least two more schools to be a conference recognized by the NCAA and the College Football Playoffs in 2026.

Amid speculation that the Pac-12 might target American universities like Memphis and Tulane, the AAC is not standing still under new commissioner Tim Pernetti.

The conference added Army as a football-only member this year to compete alongside football-only rival Navy. Army-Navy remains a non-conference game and has its own television contract with CBS that runs through 2028.

Former American Commissioner Mike Aresco had long encouraged the conference to include both the Army and the Air Force, believing that it could be of value to the league if all three military academies played for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.

The Air Force football team has traditionally been the most consistently winning team among the academies, with five double-digit winning seasons since 2014 and only three losing regular seasons since 2007.

The American currently has 14 football-playing members in the Eastern and Central time zones. Air Force, based in Colorado Springs, would be the first member in the Mountain Time Zone.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo on https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

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