The Owls were a football-only member of the Big East Conference from 1991 until 2004 . Temple was expelled from the league due to a lack of commitment to the football program from university officials . Temple played the 2005 and 2006 seasons as an independent before playing in the Mid-American Conference ( MAC ) from 2007 to 2011 . In March 2012 , the Owls rejoined the Big East Conference , with football membership beginning in the 2012 season and all other sports beginning conference play in 2013 . That same year , the conference was renamed the American Athletic Conference after several basketball-only schools split off to form a new conference that kept the Big East name . Temple is the last original Big East football member still in the American Athletic Conference , as well as the only former original BCS AQ conference team not to be a part of the power 5 conferences of the college football playoff
Big East Conference
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Temple Owls football