Temple Fans, Can we Talk?

Originally posted on Bull Run:

I want to start off by saying that the real villain behind making an 8-4 team, with a win over the Big East Champ, sit home is the BCS. Their insipid rule that a 6-6 AQ Team (with a win over an FCS school) gets preference over a team with seven or more wins from a non AQ conference is further pushing fans like me who love the bowl system towards a playoff.

What I say here might sound a bit harsh, and maybe I should hold off a bit but UB's season went off the rails months ago so I have a bit of time on my hands. So here goes:

Temple Fans, Get over yourselves. The petty, pointless tantrum many TU fans are aiming at the MAC right now is misplaced and in very poor taste.

The guys who put their real name to their thoughts like Mike Gibson of "Temple Football Forever" and Dave Gerson of "The Owls Nest" have both been pretty fair. But the Rank and File TU fan out there venting is way, way off.

I'm not completely letting Gibson off the hook, he has spent the better part of a month bemoaning the awful bowls' that the MAC has, dreaming of slipping out of 'Detroit' and onto something better. He was also unduly hard on the MAC when he was reporting Temple to CUSA was imminent. But I do share his desire for the MAC to have better Bowls (or at least one more of them) and he, like Gerson, have placed the blame at the feet of those who have the  most to do with a bowl-less eight win season. The Temple Football Team!

I like many others thought the owls were a lock for a bowl game this year. I was one of only a few in the MAC blogging world that did not have them winning the MAC but everybody who took place in the Blogger Preseason poll had Temple Bowling, they were the *only* MAC team that everyone picked.

I have to confess, and this is hard for a UB fan, that I like Temple. I like having them in the conference even if only for football. I don't regret for a second the unbalanced schedules, I am even fine if others perceive the MAC as that guy with a great couch you can sleep on. I also am 100% behind the notion that Temple got screwed, but it was not by the MAC it was by the BCS.

Going into the last two games you had control of your own fate. A nice win against UConn, a decent showing against PSU, a good win against Army and then there was always getting "the Nova monkey off your backs. There was some reason to be concerned you barely beat CMU and Bowling Green, two of the weaker teams in the conference.

But still you had home filed and the motivation to get revenge for last season on Ohio, and the Bobcats destroyed you. You then could have salvaged the season with a win over Miami. But the RedHawks who were a curiosity all season took down.

There were five Bowl teams realistically under consideration. Lets throw NIU and Miami off the top because they were guaranteed Bowls. That leaves Temple Ohio and Toledo. Despite Temples OOC accomplishments there are two simple facts.

Ohio beat Temple and Toledo beat Ohio. Toledo was 7-1 in conference (and down the street form Detroit), Ohio was 6-2 and throttled you on ESPN and then there is Temple. Not near any of the available Bowls and 5th in the conference.

Temple fans don't owe the MAC anything, and the MAC does not owe Temple fans anything. Right now its a moderately mutually beneficial relationship. Temple gets eight set games a season and a shot at one of three bowl tie ins. The MAC get's its nose into the Philly market and five hoops games a seasons. Pretty plain deal for all involved. Temple had to take the deal because independence would have ended Temple Football (It Still would).

Last season by right you should have been going to Toronto for the I-Bowl but the MAC and the Bowls worked it out so you got a Bowl in your backyard. They pulled the same thing for Buffalo in 2008 (sending us to Toronto instead of Mobile or Detroit).Temple, for an associate member, gets treated just fine. This notion that you are the 'red headed step child' is completly unfounded.

So please, both side stop the chest thumping and lets aim the bile where it belongs. The BCS!