Temple to join Big East
Temple college sports - basketball, football and more - covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Keith Pompey.
Temple to join Big East
Keith Pompey, Inquirer Staff Writer
NEW YORK -- Temple will join the Big East Conference for football beginning in 2012 and for all other sports in 2013, multiple sources have confirmed.
An announcement is expected later today. Temple will depart the Mid-American Conference for football before the upcoming season. It will remain in the Atlantic Ten Conference for all other sports for another year.
According to multiple MAC sources, it will cost Temple $6 million to exit the MAC. The Owls will have to pay the A-10 $1 million to leave with one year's notice.
The addition of Temple fills an immediate need for football. The Big East needed an eighth football member for next season, because West Virginia left for the Big 12.
Temple was a Big East member for football when the league started in 1991. The Owls were kicked out in 2004 because of their lack of success on the field and in the box office.
However, there’s a chance Temple will be more competitive this time around.
The Owls are coming off three consecutive winning campaigns. Temple finished last season with a 9-4 record and posted a 37-15 victory over Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl. That marked the Owls second bowl appearance in three seasons and their first bowl victory since beating California in the Garden State Bowl in 1979.
Temple was invited into join the Big East at its inception, when the league was founded primarily as a basketball conference in 1979.
Dunsmore...really?Just because it's more expensive doesn't make it better. Have you taken classes at both? I have. They were pretty comparable. Very different types of students. There aren't as many Nova students that I met who were paying their way through school, that was clear. Villanova is a great university, but so is Temple. There are amazing Temple students working in the Philadelphia area (and in all 50 states for that matter) who wouldn't be where they are today if it wasn't for Temple. (HTML deleted)— hellerj- Dunsmore...really?
Just because it's more expensive doesn't make it better. Have you taken classes at both? I have. They were pretty comparable. Very different types of students. There aren't as many Nova students that I met who were paying their way through school, that was clear. Villanova is a great university, but so is Temple. There are amazing Temple students working in the Philadelphia area (and in all 50 states for that matter) who wouldn't be where they are today if it wasn't for Temple. (HTML deleted)— hellerj - The big east will continue to dissolve and get raided because it is the only conference that works under the flawed model mix model of football & basketball schools.
John Marrinato is the Fredo Corleone of Conference Commissioners and not up to the task of salvaging the Big East as a viable conference going forward.
The ACC, The Big 12 will pick out 4 more schools in quick fashion. The ACC will become that the entire Atlantic Coast conference.
It is a move Temple had to make.
I hope their portion of the buyout to the MAC comes out of their endowment and any of the operating budget which is co-mingled with state tax money— ObsOfAMM
Pompey is a native Philadelphian and a University of Pittsburgh graduate. Follow him on Twitter @pompeysgridlock. Reach Keith at kpompey@phillynews.com.
