Thursday, October 29, 2015

Fearless Predictions: The Doom of Temple

Prediction:

If Temple remains good at football for, say, the next two or three years (or if they stomp Notre Dame), it will get an invite to join either the Big Ten or the ACC.


If it is the Big Ten, there will be lots of yammering about how the Owls are a natural rivalry for Rutgers, and the long-standing annual showdown with Penn State, and about Temple's fine academics (not counting the weird flying saucer alien abduction guy) and always-competitive men's basketball team.

They will not mention that it's about sewing up a foothold in the Philadelphia television market, which currently has no real allegiance to any conference or any conference's cable network.

If it is the ACC, there will be lots of yammering about strengthening the league's northern contingent. There will be talk about basketball again, and presumably some other song and dance about tradition.

They will not mention that it's about sewing up the Philadelphia television market.

If Temple football stays good for a while, they've got the cover to make the move. A competitive Temple that lurks around the Top 25 for a few weeks is a school you can claim you want in your conference. The Temple that got booted out of the old Big East for being hapless beyond comprehension, not so much.

Remember: The ACC took Georgia Tech to get Atlanta, and Boston College to grab a hold of Boston. (Virginia Tech, they kind of got strong-armed by the Virginia state legislature). The Big 10 cherry-picked Rutgers for a slice of New York, and Maryland for DC and Baltimore - not because anyone was itching to see a Huskers-Terrapins rivalry develop. All the low-hanging fruit is gone. All the big names, with the exception of Notre Dame (which cannot be bought off due to its television contract) have been absorbed. What's left are the eager second tier teams, the ones that can some day offer up enough to be a reasonable excuse.

But really, when Temple goes, it's going to be all about that Philadelphia television market.

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