Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Temple gets finalized football schedule


Date
Game
Time/TV
Saturday, Aug. 31
Temple at Notre Dame
TBA/NBC
Saturday, Sept. 7
Houston at Temple
TBA
Saturday, Sept. 14
Fordham at Temple
TBA
Saturday, Sept. 21
Bye

Saturday, Sept. 28
Temple at Idaho
TBA
Saturday, Oct. 5
Louisville at Temple
TBA
Friday, Oct. 11
Temple at Cincinnati
7 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2
Saturday, Oct. 19
Army at Temple
TBA/CBS Sports
Saturday, Oct. 26
Temple at SMU
TBA
Saturday, Nov. 2
Temple at Rutgers
TBA
Saturday, Nov. 9
Bye

Saturday, Nov. 16
UCF at Temple
TBA
Saturday, Nov. 23
UConn at Temple
TBA
Saturday, Nov. 30
Temple at Memphis
TBA


Instead of figuring out a couple of flight connections and picking up a rental car for another 50-mile trip, Temple football fans can fly out of Philadelphia directly and relatively cheaply to any road game this year.
That's tangible progress in this shifting conference landscape.
The only difference is Moscow.
Idaho, not Russia.
Idaho listing Temple game as Homecoming where the Owls will have to 
face the best students that uni can find (below).



If the Owls were playing in Russia, they'd have a direct flight.
Temple fans who have been waiting for the last few months to book trips can start booking now.
Road trips to Ypsilanti, Oxford and Muncie _ venues all too familiar to Owl supporters in the not-so-distant past  _ will now be replaced by trips to Chicago (Notre Dame), Cincinnati, Moscow, Dallas, Piscataway and Memphis.
Still think leaving the MAC was a bad idea?
I don't think many Owl fans will be making the trip to Moscow anyway. Cheap Flights.com will be able to get you in there Thursday, Sept. 26, for $587.89. It's a six-hour, 59-minute flight to Boise with a stop in Chicago. You get a rental car in Boise and drive to Moscow. That's 298 miles.
Probably the better way to go is fly from Philadelphia to Seattle, with a stop in Houston, and take an Alaskan Air Propeller plane from Seattle (after an overnight stay) to Pullman. From Pullman, it's just a 10-mile drive to Moscow.
Good luck. I hope the game's on TV.
Other than that, the trips look spectacular for the Temple one-percenters.
I'm not going to get into a game-by-game scenario here.
Those never work.
The official BE schedule release used LFF as the background.

Just ask the Temple basketball fans who put a W next to Duquesne, St. Bonaventure and Canisius and an L next to Syracuse.
Suffice it to say this is a much more manageable schedule than last year's in football, with Maryland essentially replaced by Idaho and the high profile Penn State game being replaced by a higher profile Notre Dame game.
Villanova figured to be a much tougher D1AA (FCS) foe than Fordham, so maybe this is Phil Snow's best opportunity to get a shutout as a DC since 1996.
SMU and Houston should be tough foes, but I don't see those resumes being significantly more impressive than Temple's has been over the last five years. Houston had the great year a couple of seasons ago, but Temple has been bowl eligible four of of the last five years. Matt Rhule was here in all of those four years and was away the non-bowl eligible season. Just sayin'.
If Temple can't beat Memphis (losers to Tenn-Martin and Middle Tennessee last year) it probably should get out of the football business and I don't think that's happening any time soon. Even Bobby Wallace beat Middle Tennessee.
Idaho, thinking it scheduled the Temple of 2003, not 2013, has slotted Temple has its Homecoming Day game.
So did UConn last year and look how that turned out for the Huskies.
The days of other teams immediately putting HC next to the Temple game should be over very soon.