U.S. military officials considered no fewer than 582 possible sites for the USAFA, but they eventually settled on Colorado Springs. Colorado Spring is now the second-biggest city in Colorado, located near the base of Pikes' Peak and 61 miles south of Denver. The USAFA campus is near the north end of the city, and it's one of the biggest tourist draws in the city. The USAFA is one of almost a dozen different institutions of higher education in the city. Colorado Springs is also home to a number of other military forts and bases, and military operations are one of the city's biggest industries, along with technology and tourism.

The USAFA campus spans approximately 18,000 acres just north of Colorado Springs, east of the Rocky Mountains' Rampart Range. The altitude is over a mile high: 7,258 feet above sea level. The campus houses both the military base functions of the academy, as well as its academic and athletic prep facilities. There are also a number of memorials and tributes to honor graduates, in addition to the Goldwater Visitor Center, Academy Airfield, Academy Cemetery, and USAFA Preparatory School, where individuals hoping to gain admittance to the USAFA can spend a year training intensely. The school is known for its cutting-edge architecture, which uses aluminum and modern shapes to evoke aircraft in buildings such as the Cadet Chapel.

Cadets live in one of two dorms: Vandenberg Hall and Sijan Hall. They are located in the main campus square, the Terrazzo, which also houses the Cadet Chapel, dining hall Mitchell Hall, main academic building Fairchild Hall, and the Robert F. McDermott Library.

USAFA Falcons field 17 men's and 10 women's varsity NCAA intercollegiate athletic teams. Men's teams include: football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, cross-country, fencing, golf, gymnastics, indoor/outdoor track, lacrosse, rifle, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, water polo, and wrestling. Women's teams include: basketball, cross-coutnry, fencing, gymnastics, indoor/outdoor track, swimming and diving, soccer, tennis, and volleyball. The Academy also sponsors cheerleading and boxing squads, as well as rugby, played intercollegiately as a club sport. Men's and women's teams both participate in NCAA Division I play, while the football team competes in Division I FBS. Its main athletic rivalries, naturally, occur between them and the teams at Navy and Army. Their football teams go head-to-head-to-head every year for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy--and the Falcons have taken it home 16 out of its 34 years. Additionally, every USAFA cadet is expected to participate on an intramural team when not in-season with their intercollegiate sport. Intramural teams include: bsketball, cross-country, flag football, racquetball, flickerball, rugby union, boxing, soccer, mountain biking, softball, team handball, tennis, Ultimate frisbee, wallyball, and volleyball. Cadets must also take a physical education course every year they are enrolled and most pass two athletic fitness tests every semester. Failure to pass results in "reconditioning," and repeated failure can lead to expulsion.