Temple Football Set to join Conference USA
Other Owl programs to follow in coming years
By Bob Brookover
Inquirer Staff Writer
(AP) Philadelphia, Pa. -
Temple University officials are expected to announce today that their wayward Football program has found a new home - In Conference USA. The officials, who will meet with members of the Conference USA offices in Chicago later today, are expected to announce an agreement by which Temple Football will join Conference USA as the league’s twelfth Football member. Such an agreement will allow the fledging league a chance to form a two-division league that will host a Conference Championship Game as soon as 2005.
"We’re extremely excited to be joining a league with the quality of teams Conference USA has in it." Said Scott McMurphy of the TU Sports Information Bureau.
"This allows us to make a transition from the Big East into what should be a more competitive and possibly more lucrative league that has nothing but potential for greatness."
Temple’s addition to the league, made up of mostly of schools in the South and Southwest, helps balance out a conference that underwent radical changes in the past few months. Gone are established members Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Marquette, and DePaul to the Big East and Saint Louis and Charlotte to the Atlantic 10. New members to the league are Marshall, Central Florida, Rice, Southern Methodist and Tulsa. Temple would become the twelfth member school. The Owls will participate in Conference USA as a Football school-only as of 2005 and then will add other sports programs in the next three years.
"We see this as a progressive move whereby Football gets an immediate boost while the other sports (primarily Men’s Basketball) get to prepare for the league shift." Says McMurphy.
The transition to Conference USA coincides with a major push in support and commitment from the Temple alumni and athletic sectors to boost the Owls athletic Department. The Fly, Owls, Fly Club, formed after the Big East review of Temple Football, has been said to have raised over $10 million earmarked solely for Temple Football.
"It provides the sort of revenue stream that will allow Football to grow." Said another TU official.
Donations from prominent alumni, politicians and even celebrity alum Bill Cosby have boosted the efforts to finance TU Football in their new league. Surprisingly, many are on board with the project, including Temple Men’s Basketball coach John Chaney, an early dissenter of joining Conference USA.
"I see the wisdom of affiliating with this league." Said Chaney" There are some good basketball schools and some fine universities in this new league. It’s a group Temple can benefit from."
Conference USA officials said they had been having meetings with Temple athletic people over the past few weeks about Temple joining the league. C-USA officials were concerned about Temple’s woeful performance in Football in the Big East and their relative distance from the core of Conference USA. These issues were meted out when Temple agreed to commit money needed to boost the program. It is felt that Temple’s addition in Basketball will also boost the league. Temple, located in the USA’s fifth largest TV Market, will help Conference USA secure a lucrative Television contract with ESPN and well as Fox TV. Comcast Cable, which is located in Philadelphia, is also said to be interested in televising Conference USA games exclusively on their broad network of cable outlets.
"We see this as a win-win situation" said one C-USA official, "We finally get to have a Football championship game and we bring in a fine member institution like Temple University."
More details of the Football addition will be laid out in the next week.
Contact staff writer Bob Brookover at 215-854-2577 or [email protected].
