Temple University , which began playing football in 1894 , fields the only Division I FBS football team in the Delaware Valley . Temple , one of many schools that switched conferences in the early 2010s , joined the Big East Conference in 2012 ; when the Big East split a year later , Temple moved its entire athletic program to the Big East 's football-sponsoring successor , the American Athletic Conference . Although Temple is the lone FBS school in the region , the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions are the most popular college football team in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley . Penn State is a member of the Big Ten , one of the " Power Five conferences " in college football . The school began playing football in 1887 , and has won two consensus national championships . Many fans in the Philadelphia area also root for the Atlantic Coast Conference-affiliated University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish or the Big Ten-affiliated Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Big East Conference
Big East Conference (1979–2013)
Sports in Philadelphia