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Air Force

Falcons · Mountain West

Head coach Troy Calhoun

Season Projection · 2026 W0

10,000 sims
6.4
Expected wins
6-6
Proj record
3 to 10
Win range (90%)
#82 (56–108)
Final rank (90%)
0%
Make playoff
6%
Win conference

Path to Glory

Tap a win or a loss on each pivotal game to see how the playoff probability shifts. Leave any game unset to average across both outcomes.

Make the playoff

0%

Baseline projection.

  • vs Duquesne
    Home · Sep 5
  • vs North Dakota State
    Home · Sep 13
  • at Nevada
    Away · Sep 26
  • vs Navy
    Home · Oct 3

Pivotal games are the 5 with the largest playoff-probability swing, ranked by the model. Math: chained Bayesian log-odds update from the conditional simulation set; gets the directionally right answer but won't perfectly capture cross-game correlations until the full Monte Carlo pipeline lands.

Returning production · 2025

60 PCI
  • Quarterback 50% (2/4 players)
  • Offensive line 77% (17/22 players)
  • Skill (RB/WR/TE) 65% (24/37 players)
  • Front 7 (DL/LB) 67% (24/36 players)
  • Secondary 35% (7/20 players)
  • Special teams 60% (6/10 players)

PCI weights returning production by position group (QB/OL heaviest). 70%+ is healthy continuity; 45-70% is a normal rebuild; below 45% is a meaningful turnover.

If QB1 is out (Liam Szarka)

GIE projects a 1.2 rating drop and a 4.9pp shift in playoff probability if Air Force loses its QB1 for an extended stretch. (n=2 historical samples; pooled across recent seasons.)

Situational efficiency · 2025

FBS percentile rank
  • 3rd-down conversion 44.9% 93th — elite
  • Red-zone TD rate 15.2% 55th — average
  • 4th-down aggression 55.4% 97th — elite
  • Late & close 5.7 yds/play 67th — average

Percentile is across all FBS teams with play-by-play data for the season. "Late & close" is yards per play in Q4+ with a one-score margin — a proxy for clutch offensive performance.

Schedule

Full 2026 slate. Tap a row for the matchup breakdown.

Latest Stories

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force's Elo sits at 1460—right on the cusp of "bowl-eligible if everything breaks right." The model gives them a 64% chance to reach 6 wins. Problem: their schedule doesn't care about probability. They'll need three things the…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with an expected win total of 6.4 games, a projection that sits squarely in the middle of the Mountain West's competitive band. The Falcons' current Elo rating of 1460 places them as a program in equilibrium—neither…

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force opens 2026 at 1460 ELO—a program in neutral territory. The model gives them a 19.2% shot at 7+ wins, which is respectable for a service academy running triple-option in a power conference. Everything hinges on execution…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with an ELO rating of 1460, placing the Falcons squarely in the middle tier of FBS competition—neither a projected contender nor a likely basement dweller. The model distributes their win total across a range that…

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with an ELO of 1460—right at the threshold between "bowl-eligible upside" and "coin flip." The win distribution says it all: their mode is 6 wins, but the standard deviation is brutal. They're equally likely to…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with a 1460 ELO rating and a projected win total of 6.4 games, placing the Falcons squarely in the middle tier of college football's competitive spectrum. The distribution suggests meaningful variance: the model…

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force's ELO sits at 1460—right in the band where bowl eligibility becomes a coin flip. The model gives them a 64% chance to reach six wins. That's not a projection; that's a warning. One injury, one conference loss, and they're…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force's rating system shows a program in stasis. With an ELO of 1460 and an expected win total of 6.4, the Falcons sit in a narrow band of outcomes where mediocrity isn't a failure—it's the modal result.

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force starts 2026 at 1460 ELO—a baseline that projects 6.5 wins. The model gives them a 54% chance to finish bowl-eligible. That's not a roast; that's a program that knows what it is: disciplined, repeatable, structurally sound. The…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with an Elo rating of 1460, a middling projection that distributes the Falcons across a wide band of plausible outcomes. The model gives them a 36.4% chance of reaching bowl eligibility (six wins), a threshold that…

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force's Elo sits flat at 1460 — a program treading water. The model gives them a 6.4-win expectation, which means they're one defensive collapse or QB injury away from bowl eligibility vanishing entirely. They're not bad enough to…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with an ELO rating of 1460, a figure that sits squarely in the range of a team capable of winning between 6 and 7 games in a 12-game season. The win distribution suggests the Falcons have roughly a 37% cumulative…

  • Hot Take

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force sits at 1460 ELO heading into 2026 — a rating that expects 6.4 wins. The Falcons' most likely outcome is 6 or 7 victories. Nothing flashy, nothing dire. The model says they're exactly what they look like: a disciplined,…

  • Analysis

    Air Force holds 0 ELO points this week

    Air Force enters 2026 with an Elo rating of 1460, which places the Falcons squarely in the middle tier of college football—neither a projected contender nor an obvious liability. The model distributes their likely win total across a range…

  • Recap

    Air Force: 2025 Week 16 recap

    Air Force sits at rank 80 with a 4–8 record after a decisive 42–21 road win over Colorado State in Week 14. That victory marked a significant bright spot in an otherwise difficult season, showing the Falcons can execute at scale when the…

More coming

Per-team pages get the full treatment in Phase 3: current rating, season projection histogram, schedule with win probabilities, and live overlays on Pylon stream days. For now, this page exists so stories and news have a permanent home as content rolls in.