Tag Archives: Big 12 football

08.03.16
by

Temple’s No. 1 Foe: Brutus

softcoretemple

A Temple watch party within driving distance of the game last year.

Over the last few days, there has been speculation about Temple being, err, cherry-picked by the Big 12 as part of that conference’s proposed expansion.

My reaction to that is pretty much the same as my feeling about an on-campus stadium. Two words: Not happening.



If the Owls averaged
45-50,000 fans
in Lincoln Financial
Field over the past
few years, they would
be in the Big 12 right
now and this would
not even be a discussion.

One, is because of outside influences that are dead set against Temple having a stadium. There are just not enough votes in City Council and there never will be to get the necessary street approvals the university needs for a stadium. Two, the university’s own proposed price tag—building a stadium for the dirt cheap price of $128  million—suggests that it does not have any money for the necessary accoutrements needed (health care center, community center, playground) to bribe the community into giving the stadium its approval.

The fault for not being seriously in play for the Big 12 lies elsewhere: Softcore Temple fans. You know the type. This is the guy who lives within an hour of Lincoln Financial Field, makes only one  (or less) home games a year, but spends the afternoon or evening on his couch with the potato chips on the coffee table, the remote in one hand and the other feverishly typing comments on the computer about the game on Owls Daily or Owl Scoop.

To me, it’s OK to do that for a road game but I see that happen much too often for home games. It’s not the fault of those people you see tailgate every week, but the fault of those people you see once a year.

Temple, to me, has a hardcore fan base of 20-25,000 and a much larger group of fans who will follow the Owls on TV but not to the stadium. The reason West Virginia is in the Big 12 now and Temple is not is because Mountaineer fans make it to the stadium. If the Owls averaged 45-50,000 fans in Lincoln Financial Field over the past few years, they would be in the Big 12 right now and this would not even be a discussion. The Temple administration can point to the TV market and success on the field, but those thousands of empty seats is a handicap hard to overcome.

As it is, we are on the outside looking in and will probably be pressing our noses against the window while others are chosen. As Shakespeare wrote in the play Julius Caesar: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars  but in ourselves.”

Friday: Media Day Thoughts

Monday: The Updated Roster

Wednesday: We’re Talking Practice

01.12.16
by

It Could Be Now or Never to the Big 12 for Temple

big-12-conference-logo

One thing to watch before waiting for the latest in recruiting is the NCAA meetings this weekend (Jan. 14-16) in San Antonio.

If the craziest thing of crazy things happens, Temple could be one of two schools the Big 12 adds this weekend. The conference will more likely add Houston and Cincinnati, but Temple is not out of the question.

Time is of the essence since any expansion will probably go down at the NCAA convention this weekend (Jan. 14-16).  The Big 12 wants a conference championship game, but NCAA rules require 12 games for a championship game. Crazy as it seems, the “Big 12” has only 10 teams. The conference appealed the 12-team limit, but that will probably be denied and, knowing that, the conference might be quick to add two new teams. Having a conference championship game represents earnings of roughly $2 million per year per school in addition to offering a marquee matchup to help the conference bid for a spot in the College Football Playoff.

Temple football, Notre Dame football,

Temple’s No. 1 selling points: 2 home crowds of 70,000 plus great TV ratings.

The conference needs two more teams for a playoff and the scuttlebutt is that the conference could reach out to Temple for one of the spots. If the Owls are asked to jump, the only question they should ask is how high because the revenue stream coming into the school is estimated to be in the area of $23.4 million per year now as opposed to the $3.3 million they are making now as a member of the AAC. Had the Owls been in the Big 12 last year, for example, their 23-10 basketball team would not have been snubbed on NCAA Selection Sunday. Also, a 6-6 Temple football team in the Big 12 would get a far more attractive bowl than the 10-win Owls got this past season.

The Big 12 is in a tight spot because the recent departures of Missouri and Texas A&M leave the conference two short of the minimum required for a championship game. Oklahoma, this year’s football champion, had to sweat out a spot in the championship semifinals because its league did not have a title game. The league wants to avoid such a scenario in the future.

That’s where Temple comes in because the league wants to add a TV network, like the Big 10 and the SEC has now. Temple is the only FBS school in the largest TV market (Philadelphia) not already taken by a Power 5 school, the fourth-biggest. The Big 12 had to be taking notes when the Owls drew the largest TV rating ever for a network night game in Philadelphia on Halloween night against visiting Notre Dame. Since Notre Dame has been on the network 56 times before that night, the variable that drove the ratings off the charts was Temple. Any addition of Temple would bring TV eyeballs that would make the addition a win-win for both parties. Still, better fits are Cincinnati and Houston. Cincinnati would be a travel partner for West Virginia. If the conference goes to 14 teams, than the other two teams being considered will be among Temple, UConn and Memphis.

While the Big 12 makes no sense for Temple from an Olympic sport standpoint, in an era where nothing makes sense, money talks and just about every school should be willing to walk.