Updated 6 p.m., March 21

And here you thought the Air Force was suffering under new budget cuts. Its personal-services wing is looking to hire someone to set up a fantasy football league for airmen. Even though fantasy leagues are usually free.

According to a notice posted Tuesday to a government contracting website, the Air Force Personal Center Services Directorate wants a fantasy league big enough to cover all airmen, service civilian employees and their families, across the directorate's 100 worldwide installations. It's not ready to award a contract yet, but the directorate "request[s] information and pricing on providing product branding, hosting, managing, and delivering all programs and materials related to running a Fantasy Football League."

Before any money changes hands, maybe one of the respondents can inform the Air Force that the online infrastructure necessary to manage fantasy leagues are free at sites like ESPN.com, Yahoo Sports or NFL.com. I've never played fantasy myself, but a quick poll of friends and colleagues who do informs me that the platforms don't take a cut out of any pot contestants set up to make things interesting. Perhaps that changes when you're talking about a league open to hundreds of thousands of people.

But if so, that's quite a statement about the Air Force's priorities. Congressionally mandated budget cuts have led Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to announce that he's curbing "non-readiness or mission-essential flying and travel." The service anticipates cutting flight hours by 18 percent, which it expects will make it less ready for squadrons to respond in a crisis. About 180,000 of its civilian personnel will face furloughs without pay. They'll have a lot of time to get ready for draft day.

An Air Force-wide fantasy football league would probably be a lot of fun. Watching football is great; getting competitive about it with friends is better; and figuring out quantifiable ways you can demonstrate your superiority at managing a team is best of all. Maybe one of the free online fantasy platforms can offer to scale up for the nation's airmen. Because paying for a fantasy league while claiming to be too broke to properly defend the country is not what winners do.

Late Update: The Air Force has revised the request for information with a key clarification. "These funds are generated through user fees and charges at Air Force morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) programs worldwide. THEY ARE NOT APPROPRIATIONS FROM CONGRESS OR 'TAXPAYER' DOLLARS." Emphasis in the original. Good to know the Air Force is looking for fantasy leaguers to self-finance.