Good News for Owls: More Bowls

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If the AAC can get a tie-in to the new bowl in Arizona, Temple could be playing in Tempe.

Anytime someone moans and groans about there being “too many bowls” I say there are too few.

After being hit with a “are you crazy?” stare, I mention two things:

  • Temple’s 2010 team
  • Cornhole Championships

By now, the story of the Temple 2010 team is well-known, but it’s certainly worth repeating.

Those Owls finished 8-4 and pummeled a team, UConn, 30-16, that made the Fiesta Bowl. The Owls being denied when the Huskies, also 8-4, were accepted (via being in a BCS league, the Big East) was widely regarded as one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in recent sports history.

Besides some mentions on the afternoon ESPN talk shows, Temple got nothing out of that bowl season and, the day after head coach Al Golden held a meeting to say: “Guys, we’re not going anywhere” he announced he was taking the head coaching job at Miami.

Talk about a punch in the gut one day followed by a kick in the nuts the next, that was it for Temple football.

Cornhole championships come into play simply because that—and poker and bowling—are staples of the ESPN programming after the bowl games are completed in January. If two or three extra bowl games take cornhole, bowling and poker off television that’s not only more palatable to me but for ratings in general.

Anything that gives an 8-4 or a 6-6 Temple team a greater chance at bowl exposure is good news, not bad so that’s why Brett McMurphy breaking the story of more bowls starting with the 2020 season is encouraging.

Chicago and Myrtle Beach, S.C., are locks to host two of the three new bowls. Phoenix, another attractive site, is rumored to be leading for a third bowl.

Meanwhile, from an American Conference perspective, the league is musing a permanent invitation for its champion to play in the Liberty Bowl, if the champion doesn’t make the NY6 game. That’s a good idea because the Liberty is a tier above the current places where the second-place team usually goes (Military, Boca).

All this should be officially announced on July 1, which is less than one week away.

Anything that’s good for Temple and bad for cornhole is OK in my book.

Wednesday: Stadium Delay

Friday: The Alternatives

Monday: Under Pressure

Wednesday (7/4): 5 New Arrivals To Watch

Friday (7/6): How New Rules Impact the Owls

 

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7 thoughts on “Good News for Owls: More Bowls

  1. Well, I sort of agree as far as your argument goes Mike. The other side of the coin however, is that when you have this many bowls, going to one is not only not a big deal but if you don’t go it shows that you’re really bad. Also, I assume it’s still true that a big majority of schools lose money going to bowls which when added to the Lurie deal hurts TU. They are money making businesses for the sponsors and organizers, but not the schools.

    Temple’s 8-4 team not getting into a bowl was a true sham but underscores TU’s uphill battle for repectability even then when there were a lot of bowls. Now they go 6-6 and are guaranteed to go? It’s way too watered down IMO. But I agree I’d still rather see them play post season.

  2. Kraft dodged a bullet.

  3. I think it’s a great idea for the AAC to use the Memphis/ FedEx connection to try and lock down the Liberty Bowl for your champ in non NY6 years. The Liberty is a quality, higher-profile bowl game with a ton of history and will help give your championship a lot more prestige and visibility compared to ending up in some ‘There’s Nothing Better on TV 6 Days Before Christmas Bowl’. I always thought the AAC should have went after the Russel Athletic/ Camping World or Liberty Bowls as a ‘home base’ for its champion.

    Joe P.

    • Liberty Bowl would have been the bowl in 1979 that the Owls would have went to if they beat Penn State. Bud Dudley (the then bowl director) was interviewed at halftime in the press box and said the Liberty Bowl committee had decided to give Temple the invite “if they are able to hold this 7-6 lead.” That did not happen and Temple followed Rutgers as the second traditional East representative at the Garden State Bowl, finishing 10-2. Instead, Penn State went to the Liberty Bowl and beat a 9-2 Tulane team, 9-6, in a game played before 50,021 that featured all field goals. The game was broadcast on ABC and the announcers were Keith Jackson, Verne Lundquist (yes, the current working Verne) and Ara Parseighan.

  4. Temple is the last original Big East football member still in the American Athletic Conference, as well as the only former original BCS AQ conference team not to be a part of the power 5 conferences of the college football playoff. Our destiny.

    • True, even UConn was not an original BE football member. Poor leadership at Temple is responsible for most of this. Poor fan support (probably the result of the poor leadership) is a distant second.

  5. That’s right, Temple’s ongoing struggle for respectability which is continually fumbled by the “leaders.” An invite from a P5 conference and the OC stadium will probably never happen, both of which have been failures because of poor planning. They don’t even have any leverage to work a better deal with Lurie. But, at least as long as it lasts, the AAC is a very good situation for Temple – mid to lower P5 level where they can be competitive (and even very good in a solid conference) every year.

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