Bowl Scenarios: It comes down to Florida

There are two thoughts that come to mind when thinking about Temple’s bowl destination:

1)  Beggars can’t be chosers

2) What difference does it make?

We won’t know for sure, but my gut is telling me that Temple’s bowl destination will be Boca Raton again.

Process of elimination.

Because Temple just scraped into being bowl eligible, it falls into the beggars’ category when it comes to the AAC pecking order. That means the more appealing bowls–at least to me–like the Birmingham Bowl and the Cure Bowl–will go elsewhere.

templebowls

To me, the Birmingham Bowl would be the ideal destination for Temple because the Owls’ football brand is best advanced by beating a Power 5 team. The only possible Power 5 opponent would come in either two bowls, Birmingham or Military.

That’s where the “what difference does it make?” phrase comes into play. If the Owls are not going to play a Power 5 team–and it looks like they are not—what difference does it make if they play either a Marshall, a Georgia State, a FIU or an Appalachian State?

Not much.

Since Navy, despite some rumblings down there to the contrary, is probably going to host the Military Bowl and since USF made known its strong desire to play a Power 5 school, the Owls are probably going to either St. Petersburg  or Boca Raton again. The Owls have demonstrated a strong following in Boca Raton, so I think that’s where they will be slotted again. They drew a conservatively estimated 6,000 to Boca (after drawing 4,000 to New Mexico for the previous bowl), so they are a known commodity there. They might do as well or better in St. Pete, but bowl committees like a sure thing and Temple is far from a sure thing there.

The opponent is the unknown factor, but if it’s a Sun Belt or CUSA school, the reaction by “Joe Philadelphia” fans to will probably be a “meh.” Ideally, you’d like to see the Owls go against, say, an ACC team like Duke or BC in Birmingham but that chess move has been blocked by USF.

So, in my mind, it’s back to Del Boca Vista. This time, let’s hope Geoff Collins goes easy on the beach volleyball, air hockey and bowling and cracks the whip on the game prep because, while beating a CUSA or Sun Belt team won’t advance the Temple TUFF brand, losing would be worse.

Monday: Bowl Reality

Wednesday: Ridiculousness 

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7 thoughts on “Bowl Scenarios: It comes down to Florida

  1. I dont care who we play. I just want to win the damn game. It could be against an all girls school, just win. While we all love Temple and we want the brand to “advance”, this isnt the year for that. Last year we were conference champions and lost to a weak P5 team. I dont care what the circumstances were, the national perception is that we dont belong in a P5 conference if you cant beat a 6-6 Wake Forrest team. Get to a bowl and win the game. This team is poorly coached and not that good. Beat the all girls school in the bowl game. Do bot get blown out by a weak P5 school, which is probably what would happen.

  2. Mike, your last sentence sums it up perfectly. THEY NEED TO WIN!!!

  3. Fuck USF and their desires. Memphis or UCF should be invited to the Military and Birmingham bowls b4 USF

  4. Last year against WF was a great opportunity to get a nice win against a P5 team in a bowl game. And they probably would have except for the lousy coaching carousel senario. I would say Temple kind of screwed it up as to how it was handled but it’s not the same as PSU right now because PSU hasn’t lost their HC and a coordinator in one fell swoop. It sure is nice getting into bowls now-a-days but Temple needs to win some, especially since being in bowls is so watered down with so many bowls and teams involved, it just doesn’t mean what it used to. In fact, what it means is, if you don’t go you’re pretty darn bad and that’s really why some of us say Temple needs to be in a bowl every year from now on.
    Anyway, Collins has an opportunity to not only get a winning record his first year (to say nothing of sending the seniors out on a good note), but get the program in an upward direction for sustained annual success, starting now. Go Owls.

    • Looks like Boca against FAU. Hope we do to them in the last game what Navy did to them (42-19) in the first. My faith in Ken Niumatalolo is a lot higher, though, than my faiith in CG (or GC).

  5. we were one letter away from being run over by the LANE TRAIN

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