Sometime today — perhaps when you're in the middle reading this post — we'll know the fate of Temple University football as it pertains to the MAC and Big East. Will they leave? Will they stay If they leave, will they bolt in the dead of night and leave a gaping hole in the MAC 2012 football schedule?
We can only speculate, but we do know it's February 29, the quadrennial holiday that puts our Gregorian calendar in a state of equilibrium.
And it got me thinking: aren't we darn tired of all this realignment talk? We didn't sign up to write about sports so that we could pontificate on procedural matters. We want to discuss games and players and cool highlights and make fun of Northern Illinois' dopey mascot and stare in awe at Dan Majerle's bronze skin. That's the fun part.
But we do realize that schools need to make a buck, and sometimes they outgrow or fall terribly out of place with their big conference. Changes need to happen. And this should happen no more frequently than every four years.
It might actually be a fun college sports holiday: NCAA Leap Day. If you want to declare yourself playing for another conference, there's your window of opportunity. Else you have to wait.
So Temple, if you need to fulfill some greater self-actualization by playing in the Big East in 2012, so be it, and don't let the door hit you where winning-record MAC teams beat you. If not ... we'll discuss this in 2016.