While the Big 12 Conference certainly seems on the brink of extinction, some hold out hope that the league can survive.

According to an article in Thursday’s Tulsa World, Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione is one of those people.

In the article, Castiglione said if Texas stayed, the Big 12 could be saved. And he told the paper the league might look at adding Air Force and BYU of the Mountain West Conference.

On Friday, shortly after the MWC announced it had added Boise State to its membership (effective July 1, 2011), The Gazette asked academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michael C. Gould about those rumors and whether Air Force would consider moving to a different league.

“I think all I’ll say to that is the new arrangement likely won’t look a whole lot like the old one,” Gould said. “So we’re keeping all our options open. And our primary focus through all this will be to continue our very important mission of training the next generation of leaders of our country. Everything we do will have to fall in line with our primary mission.”

Gould noted that no matter the academy’s conference, he wanted to maintain the ability for its football team to face Army and Navy.

“One way or another, we’ll maintain flexibility so we always schedule Army and Navy,” he said.

Gould also said that “our traditional rivalries up and down the front range,” including Colorado State, Wyoming and New Mexico, “are very important to the Air Force Academy” both because of tradition and the ease of travel for Air Force teams and fans.

Photo by