The venerable Phil Steele has started to release his daily countdown of top 30 college football teams for 2011 and coming in at No. 30 is the Air Force Falcons. Here is Steele's analysis of the 2011 Falcon season:
Today Air Force comes in at #30 with the Falcons returning 14 starters from last year's 9-4 team. Since Troy Calhoun took over in 2007 Air Force has won at least 8 games every year and this year looks like Calhoun's best team yet and they are capable of reaching DD [double-digit] wins. While they do face ND [Notre Dame] and Boise on the road and TCU at home, they should be favored in the other 9.
This goes in line with ESPN's Andrea Adelson who says that Air Force is a 'dark horse' candidate to win the Mountain West title. If Air Force is able to pull of an upset over TCU, Notre Dame or Boise State and run the table against the other nine opponents on their schedule, then the Falcons will have their first 10-win season since 1998, and that was the last time Air Force won a conference title.