Villanova looking to make most from playing up a level

FCS teams beat FBS teams. Just not that often. But when they do, people tend to notice. And the FBS team ends up leading the Fraud Five.

It's a monetary thing. The FBS team wants a win; the FCS team needs a paycheck. It's as fundamental as that. Until your FCS team somehow ends up earning something much more. Then everyone wants to know how and why it ever happened.

Villanova has played 21 of those games. The Wildcats have won three. Two of them came against Temple, in 2003 and 2009. They nearly beat the Owls again in 2010. Temple won the last two meetings, in 2011 and 2012, by 42-7 and 41-10 respectively. As with most things, the reality probably lies somewhere in between.

Saturday afternoon, at Lincoln Financial Field, they'll meet once more, for the first time in five years. This time, it's only a two-game series.

Temple is supposed to win. The Owls are the ones taking the risk. Yet every FBS program does it. So you live with the possibilities.

And hope you don't turn into the next Nevada Las Vegas-Howard.

For the Villanovas of the food chain, it should be like playing mostly with house money, right?

"We feel like we have everything to lose," senior linebacker Ed Shockley said. "We have a game to lose. This is a chance to prove yourself, you know. When you step on the field. you have a chip on your shoulder. It's constantly in the back of your head; that's the level you should be at. If someone passed up on you, you want to make them pay for it."

The Wildcats opened with a 38-35 win at nationally ranked Lehigh, which moved them from 10th to sixth in their poll. Temple lost Geoff Collins' Owls debut at Notre Dame, 49-16. Of course, there is a difference between going to Bethlehem and visiting South Bend.

Villanova lost by only five at Connecticut in 2015. And in overtime at Syracuse the year before that, after missing a short field goal at the end of regulation. This is the first time since 2004 that the Wildcats didn't open against an FBS team. And the first time that they're 1-0 in eight years.

Temple has won 10 games each of the past two seasons, a program first, and is the defending American Athletic Conference champion. The Owls are bigger, faster, deeper. That's usually enough. This game is good for the city. The crowd figures to be 30,000-plus, especially since it's not being played on Labor Day weekend for a change.

"I'm sure they'll be angry and excited to welcome us into their stadium," first-year Villanova coach Mark Ferrante said. "We're excited for the challenge. It's an easy trip for us, which I like. It's almost a home game. It's an away game, but we're not that far away. I hope Nova Nation travels down to see us, as well."

The last time Villanova beat an FBS opponent was 2009 when it went on to win a national championship. The final was 27-24. And that Temple team would win nine times, the most in the Al Golden era.

"We want to hang in there and see what happens," Ferrante said. "I see this as a second opener. It's different. I don't know how much different. But we don't have the whole preseason to prepare. They're in the same boat as we are. The local thing adds to it. Maybe our kids know people on that team, more so than someone that's not as close."

And if they can find a way to pull off another upset …

"It's a huge feather in your cap," Ferrante went on. "It's also a confidence booster. Even some of the games we didn't win — we could have or maybe should have — you take something from it."

It's all a matter of just how much.