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Temple to discuss move to Big East

WOULD TEMPLE decline a chance to join the Big East? It wouldn't seem likely. But the university still has to do its due diligence. So today, as was first reported by CSNPhilly.com, Temple's Board of Trustees will hold a conference call to discuss the situation, although no Big East sources would confirm that an official invite has been extended.

WOULD TEMPLE decline a chance to join the Big East? It wouldn't seem likely. But the university still has to do its due diligence. So today, as was first reported by CSNPhilly.com, Temple's Board of Trustees will hold a conference call to discuss the situation, although no Big East sources would confirm that an official invite has been extended.

It's no secret that Temple finally looks like the only viable fit for the conference, which is left with just seven football members for the upcoming season after the recent loss of West Virginia to the Big 12.

The Owls, who were football-only members of the Big East from 1991 until being asked to leave 13 years later, have been playing football in the MAC since 2007. They've won 26 games the past three seasons, and are coming off a 9-4 campaign under first-year coach Steve Addazio that ended with a 22-point victory over Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl, the program's second bowl win and first in 32 years.

Temple is a member of the Atlantic 10 for all other sports.

Because of the timing, the university would have to quickly negotiate exit fees. MAC sources say it will cost Temple $3.5 million to leave immediately, while supposedly the price is $2 million to leave the A-10 with 1 year's notice.

There's always a chance Temple could join the Big East for football now, and for everything else in 2013 or even beyond.

A vote of the full Big East membership, which includes the non-football schools, is required. Any vote requires a 72-hour notification, and according to sources, there's been no notification thus far.

Temple also has been approached by officials from Conference USA and the Mountain West, which recently agreed to a formal merger. But sources said Temple informed those people that it believed it was close to getting in the Big East, which makes absolute sense.

Since losing Pitt and Syracuse to the Atlantic Coast Conference 6 months ago, the Big East has addressed the future by adding Boise State, San Diego State and Navy for football, and Central Florida, SMU, Houston and Memphis for all sports.

Everyone except Navy will enter in 2013. The Big East had looked to get Boise in a year early but financially it couldn't be worked out.

Now, as many anticipated all along, it looks as if it's indeed close to being Temple's turn.

"Decisions have to be made," Patrick O'Connor, chairman of Temple's Board of Trustees, told CNSPhilly.com. "It's a matter of where we want to be."