Bad time to be back in Big East for Temple

[Harry]

Now Temple is about to get hit with another payment for dancing with the devil wearing football cleats.

Already gutted of its name programs in football, the Big East is about to have its storied basketball legacy disintegrate.

It is being reported that the seven non-BCS football Big East schools (DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. Johns, Seton Hall and Villanova) are planning to announce as early as next week that they will leave the conference.

When that happens, Connecticut will be the only power program left in a conference that was traditionally one of the best in college basketball.

The administration at Temple might have wanted the Big East move for football, but to the average Owls fans, most of whom didnt give a hoot about football, the Big East finally meant the basketball program getting the type of respect it deserved.

Most Temple fans always believed that the basketball program deserved higher status than the Atlantic 10, and being in the Big East was acknowledgement of that.

That, however, was the old Big East one that had NCAA championship programs in Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Syracuse and Villanova, plus Final Four appearances by practically everyone.

The problem is that for all of its desires to be more, Temple is still a basketball-centric school swimming in an ocean of football great white sharks. Now, without the protection that Big East basketball previously provided, its likely going to be part of the chum once the final feeding frenzy begins.

The higher-ups at Temple should have had more foresight.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/colleges/temple/John_Smallwood_Bad_time_to_be_back_in_Big_East.html

[Mean Green 93-98]

"The higher-ups at Temple should have had more foresight." Really? Even if it was clear that the Big East wouldn't be the Big East of 15 years ago, who could have foreseen that it would come to THIS?