With three defections in the span of a month, the Big East Conference is now faced with trying to restock its cupboard in order to survive.

It appears that the conference may go shopping far from home.

According to a report in Sunday's Denver Post, the Air Force Academy — located in Colorado Springs, Colo. — is shooting for joining the Big East Conference, as part of a service academy raid.

"Our interest is high in the Big East. That's fair to say," Air Force athletic director Hans Mueh told the Post during Saturday's loss at Notre Dame. "This stuff is moving fast."

According to Mueh, the plan of Air Force joining the Big East would consist of the Falcons being a part of the football conference only. The rest of the academy's sports would move from the Mountain West Conference — of which it is a charter member — to the Missouri Valley Conference.

But while Mueh insisted that no final decision has been made, he would hope that by Air Force joining the conference, Navy and Army would be in the picture as well.

"In my perfect world, with the Big East on the radar, I would love Air Force, Navy and Army to be in that conference together," he said.

Air Force had been mentioned as a target by the Big East once Pittsburgh and Syracuse announced they would leave the conference last month. But once TCU — which was supposed to join the league next season — left to join the Big 12 Conference before even becoming a member this past week, the Big East was forced to go into survival mode.

One scenario that the Big East is reportedly throwing around would be to add Navy (for football only), in addition to Temple and Central Florida for all sports, while getting Villanova to move its football program up to FBS from FCS (formerly Division 1-A). That would give the league 10 football members — enough to keep its BCS automatic qualifier status — and move its basketball numbers back to 16.

More coverage:

• Star-Ledger coverage of conference realignment

But now the potential of adding Air Force to the conference would throw a similar wrench into logistics that TCU would have.

Currently, the closest Big East football team to the academy is Louisville — which is still nearly 1,100 miles away.

Mueh, who said that "The Big East wants Army. Absolutely.", stated that he has been assured by Big East leadership that the league has assured Air Force of its stability going forward.

Brendan Prunty: bprunty@starledger.com