Temple set to join MAC for football, report says

1/22/2005
FROM BLADE STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

The stage has been set for Temple to join the Mid-American Conference as a football-only member.

On Thursday the school announced that its football program will remain at the Division I-A level. While the Philadelphia Daily News reported that sources said a deal has been struck for Temple to enter the league in 2006, MAC commissioner Rick Chryst said the school has not made an application to join the conference.

"As a staff we have exchanged information with Temple, but we have not received a formal application" to join the league, Chryst said.

Chryst said all the information exchanged by the MAC and the school has focused on the Owls joining as a football-only member.

Temple is a member of the Atlantic 10 conference in all sports but football; the school was booted from the Big East after the 2003 season and played an independent schedule last fall.

Chryst said any decision about MAC expansion would be made by the league's presidents, who next meet in Indianapolis on Feb. 7.

Chryst said the agenda for that meeting has not been finalized, but, "future membership and the landscape of Division I-A football [are two] issues that could be a part of that meeting."