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| Temple was the answer to a Jeopardy question last night. |
In honor of Temple being the answer to a trivia question yesterday on Jeopardy, we have a question:
"What does all of this conference shifting mean to Temple?"
"What is everything and nothing, Alex?"
Alex would have said that is correct.
First, yesterday's question, which appeared under the category of "Texas Towns" and a contestant got right.
"1-95 goes through it; it's a university in Pennsylvania or a synagogue?"
"What is Temple?"
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| Cliff: "Alex, I object, I-95 doesn't technically run through Temple." |
I would have pulled a Cliff Clavin since the I-95 part of the question threw me off.
Back to the conference shifting, though.
There's so much landscape shifting out there that the average Temple fan's head has to be spinning like Linda Blair in the Exorcist.
What does this really mean for Temple football?
Everything and nothing is the correct answer.
Everything because Thursday, March 7, is the one-year anniversary of the date the news broke that Temple was joining the Big East.
The conference Temple signed up for then certainly isn't the one it signed up for now.
At the time, visions of a packed Liacouras Center for games against Georgetown, Pitt, Villanova and Rutgers had to dance through the heads of the Board of Trustees.
Those visions are now gone.
Temple fans have to get in the mindset of going to watch Temple, not the bad guys
Nothing because if Temple sports people keep doing their jobs and Temple fans do their jobs, Temple will end up in a better place.Temple football certainly IS in a better place than the Purgatory that was the MAC, sentenced to years playing Tuesday and Wednesday night games against directional mid-western schools having little or nothing in common with Temple.
Now, at least, there is the familiarity of Cincinnati and UConn and, for a year, Rutgers.
There are exciting road trips ahead to be made to places like New Orleans, Tampa and Dallas ahead, a far cry from the puddle jumpers and buses needed to get to places like Yipsilanti and Oxford.
Temple has a nationally known basketball coach who is admired and respected by his peers, if not a small but vocal group of his team's own fans, and who just posted his sixth-straight 20-win season.
Temple has an energetic young football coach who is following a successful business model established by Al Golden, his mentor.
Temple fans have to get in the mindset of going to watch Temple, not the bad guys. When Penn or Belmont come to Cameron Indoor Stadium, do Duke fans whine "get some decent opponents in here" or do they say thank God for another chance to see the Blue Devils?
Advertising to a Temple-centric audience certainly helps.
Today should be a good crowd because the last time we streamed an ad for Hooter's Birthday across the top of this website, 9,323 fans attended an end-of-the-season game against Duquesne in 2011.
That's what Temple fans have to do for the product these outstanding coaches provide.
If those guys keep doing work, and the fans start voting with their feet and season-ticket money, Temple will be a respected player on the national stage and there is always a nice role for an actor like that.
For final Jeopardy the category is NCAA business:
"Is the conference shifting done?
"What is no, Alex?"
