Air Force Academy Athletic Programs

The Department of the Air Force funds the Air Force Academy Athletic Programs (CFDA 12.801) to operate and support the United States Air Force Academy's athletic program, with the most recent grant award issued on August 28, 2015—now over a decade old. The program serves the Academy's mission to build leaders of character for the Air Force and the nation by fostering realistic cadet leadership and teamwork skills in a mentally and physically challenging environment. The Air Force Academy Athletic Corporation, a Colorado-incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is the sole eligible recipient under statutory authority in 10 U.S.C. 9362.

Grant activity under this program is minimal and dormant. The portfolio contains only three awards spanning from September 2013 to August 2015, yielding fewer than one award per year historically. No grant opportunities have been posted recently, and no awards have been issued in the past eleven years. Combined federal dollars obligated total $206.2 million, with a combined federal and non-federal obligation of $291.3 million, reflecting a non-federal cost-share of $85.1 million.

Funding has concentrated overwhelmingly with the Department of the Air Force Headquarters Air Force Academy, which obligated $205.8 million across one Cooperative Agreement award. The remaining two Project Grant awards—totaling $624 thousand—came from the Department of the Air Force ($30 thousand) and the Department of the Air Force Materiel Command Research Laboratory ($354 thousand). The assistance-type mix spans two Project Grants and one Cooperative Agreement, with terms extendable up to five years from award date.

Recent awards include a $205.8 million Cooperative Agreement (September 2013) modifying the USAFA athletic programs funding to add athletic department equipment; a $593 thousand Project Grant for advanced polarization and coherence sensors for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance applications (August 2015); and a $30 thousand Project Grant for online partially observable Markov decision process algorithms research (May 2015). The dormancy of the program, the single-entity eligibility restriction, and the absence of recent opportunity postings render active pursuit unlikely to yield near-term funding.