Temple will join the Big East for football this fall and all other sports in 2013, officials announced at a press conference in New York City on Wednesday.

The Big East Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve the Owls, giving the conference eight football teams for 2012. The Owls fill the void left when the conference terminated West Virginia’s membership Feb. 14, effective in June.

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto said at the press conference that he and Temple Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw first met ‘well over a year ago’ to discuss adding the Owls to the conference, and their discussions intensified during the past several weeks.

‘The decision to invite Temple was based on a number of important factors,’ Marinatto said at the press conference, ‘including its longstanding tradition as a basketball powerhouse, its renewed commitment to competing at the highest level in football and the great value of adding the Philadelphia television market to our football footprint.’

Temple finished its 2011 regular season 9-4 and beat Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl. In the last four years, the Owls have won 31 games. Temple’s football team competed in the Mid-American Conference last season, while all of its other teams played as members of the Atlantic 10.

This is the second stint in the Big East for the Owls’ football program, after it competed in the Big East from 1991-2004.

Marinatto also said that the conference would be open to discussing the possibility of an early departure for Syracuse and Pittsburgh. Marinatto has previously said the schools would be forced to wait until the 2014 season as per the 27-month waiting period required by Big East bylaws.

‘Our membership, given the speed and success of our expansion initiative, I think is open to having the discussions with both Pittsburgh and Syracuse about them having an early departure,’ Marianatto said at the press conference. ‘We haven’t actually had those conversations yet, but our membership is certainly willing to do that at this point given the way we’ve landed.’

cjiseman@syr.edu

Published on March 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Chris: cjiseman@syr.edu | @chris_iseman