Temple Owls to join Big East Conference in 2012

By Kevin Kelley -

Big EastThe Big East has officially announced the addition of the Temple Owls to the conference. Temple will join for football in 2012 and all sports in 2013.

Temple was formerly a member of the Big East in football from 1991 through 2004. The Owls were dismissed from the league and played as an Independent for two years before joining the MAC.

“This is arguably the greatest day in the history of Temple Athletics,” said Bill Bradshaw, Temple’s director of athletics. “For the first time we will have all of our athletic programs playing in one conference, and there is no conference that is a better fit for Temple than the BIG EAST. It also will provide a national platform in a BCS conference for our teams and student-athletes to compete with other highly respected educational institutions. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the BIG EAST and its member schools.”

The addition of Temple brings the total number of football-playing schools in the Big East to eight in 2012. By 2015, the Big East will have 13 members after Boise State, Houston, Memphis, San Diego State, SMU and UCF join in 2013 and Navy joins in 2015.

But that number could be 12 in 2015 if Louisville departs. Sources have told CBS that Louisville is the “…consensus choice for the Big 12’s 11th member, if the league expands, and that the Cardinals would accept an invitation to the Big 12.”

With Temple now set for 2012, the Big East should be able to release their 2012 football schedule soon. It is expected that Temple will assume West Virginia’s spot on the schedule. That may or may not force Temple to adjust some non-conference game dates.

Big East commissioner John Marinatto also said today that he is open to negotiating a departure for Pittsburgh and Syracuse in 2013 rather than 2014. Additionally, he wants the Big East to have two divisions of seven teams and is looking for a Western partner.

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Comments (4)

Geez. He wants more expansion after Temple? Forget adding more Western schools. Just let Villanova promote their football program to FBS level and be done with it.

BIG EAST EAST: Rutgers, UConn, Navy, USF, UCF, Villanova, Temple
BIG EAST WEST: Cincinnati, Memphis, Louisville, Houston, SMU, Boise State, San Diego State

Villanova would make sense, but the Wildcats have gone back and forth on joining the Big East. Is there stadium even big enough? They could use Lincoln Financial, but my guess is they probably want to use their own stadium.

Yeah, Villanova Stadium is too small. I heard rumors that they were trying to strike a deal with the Philadelphia Union soccer team to use PPL Park, which seats 18,500 currently. I think they work together on expanding the stadium to 25-30,000.

Big east is dead cincy, Louisville n San Diego should leave n beg the big 12 to let them in n then big 12 pick up Irish n compete against sec