Temple Prepares for the Big East
The past few years have been a host to myriad of changes around Temple University’s football program. In 2009, they made just their third bowl game in school history, as they were rewarded for their 9-4 season with an invitation to the EagleBank Bowl. After the very next season, Temple’s head coach, Al Golden, who won conference Coach of the Year in 2009, left for a brighter future at the University of Miami. Taking over his duties was Steve Addazio and in Addazio’s first season at the helm, Temple made another bowl game. This time, the Owls’ 9-4 mark set them up for a trip to the New Mexico Bowl, just the school’s fourth bowl appearance ever.
However, the tumult was not done yet. After two bowl appearances and two head coaches in three seasons, Temple University decided to pack their bags and move from the Mid-American Conference to the Big East…presumably for monetary reasons. Overshadowed by so many other, bigger schools switching conferences in recent months, Temple’s move to the Big East for the upcoming season is an important one.
Having been scavenged by “better” conferences of their top teams, the Big East is reeling a bit heading into 2012. West Virginia is gone. Syracuse and Pittsburgh are heading out soon. Virginia Tech and Miami are not coming back. TCU turned them down. Boise State and Houston are still a year away.
All this turnover, turmoil and uncertainty opens the door for the Temple Owls. The Big East, at least in recent years, has been anything but a power conference even with those members that have since departed. Beating a few new-comers to the punch and establishing themselves here in 2012 could give Temple a chance at making waves in the new conference. Although a BCS bowl berth may be asking too much, competing in the decimated Big East right away should not be out of the realm of possibilities.
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