Total realignment chaos could help Temple. Hello, ACC?

It’s an obvious thought: Complete NCAA Division I realignment chaos is good for Temple. Even minor chaos isn’t bad.

We’re not just talking about UCLA and USC bolting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. That’s a big move, but quite a few more steps are needed to help the Owls.

Notre Dame to the Big Ten? A huge move, but still not enough. Anyway, Big Ten moves by themselves don’t matter locally, since Penn State is all that the Big Ten will look to have for the Philadelphia market, while Rutgers now has Jersey cable homes covered.

How about North Carolina moving away from the Atlantic Coast Conference, to the Big Ten or Southeastern Conference, maybe with Virginia or Duke? Plus Clemson and, say, Florida State to the SEC? What if the ACC ceases to exist in its current form?

The big picture is that the big conferences aren’t going away, just getting bigger. Eventually, that could mean the ACC, more in desperation mode, might decide the nation’s fourth- or fifth-largest television market is a go. This has been a dream scenario for Temple for many years.

Not trying to say this is all a slam dunk, even if all these other moves happen. Just that the odds of it helping Temple are improving.

“Can’t hurt,” said one veteran administrator paying close attention to the whole national landscape. “Has to help.”

In its present situation, make no mistake, Temple faces a dead end. The American Athletic Conference, while still the best current option, doesn’t provide rivalries, and when the Big 12 raided the AAC, there was no interest in Temple, as predicted. (Connecticut went back to Big East basketball for a reason.)

In its present form, the ACC has decided it does not need an East Coast school between Charlottesville, Va., and the campus of Boston College. But what if there are mass ACC defections? Does the Philadelphia market suddenly get more interesting?

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In the past, it’s been easy to wonder if the ACC would go to Temple first as a Philadelphia possibility. That school on the Main Line has won a couple of NCAA basketball titles and has grown its own fan base. Would the ACC call Villanova first?

Let’s argue that realignment chaos would make the idea of moving to the ACC, even with a football upgrade, much less attractive for Villanova. If you’re not joining North Carolina and Virginia and Notre Dame, what’s the point? If Clemson isn’t coming to town for football, why upgrade? Villanova is in a pretty fair position as it is.

An asterisk for Villanova is worrying about whether March Madness ceases to exist in its present form at some point if the big boys only play with the other big boys. Jay Wright used to worry about Villanova being left out in the mid-major wilderness, which is why he was in favor of moving up in football years back. As it turned out, ‘Nova didn’t have to do that.

All this sounds almost too good to be true for Temple. (So, we’ll see.) Temple would see an instant upgrade in all sports if even a watered-down ACC came calling.

With a strong ACC media rights agreement in place tethering current schools to the conference, will there be movement by schools to the SEC and Big Ten? To be determined, but let’s assume the bigger money to be made long-term is with the big boys, which speaks to more chaos ahead. Let’s also wonder if the TV networks really pulling the strings make some of those attachments go away. Since ESPN partners with the SEC Network and ACC Network, wouldn’t ESPN rather North Carolina go to the SEC than to the Big Ten, which partners with Fox Sports?

Temple could help its own cause obviously by getting back on the winning track on the football field. A site visit to the Linc with 16,000 people there isn’t going to impress ACC honchos or convince them the Owls can deliver the Philly market if they can’t even get a decent crowd at home games.

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That brings us to the campus stadium question. Let’s argue that Temple might be better off being at the Linc through any move, then could later decide whether a campus stadium still makes fiscal sense.

Some Temple fans seemed offended that the Big 12 didn’t give the Owls a real expansion look while poaching other AAC schools. They shouldn’t have. It simply wasn’t the right fit, proven now that the Big 12 is making eyes westward, toward Utah and Colorado and the Arizona schools in the Pac-12.

The bottom line: There is only one Power 5 conference without Penn State already in it that could be a geographic fit for Temple. It’s a conference that soon could find itself in need of additions, but at least able to sell itself as a legit East Coast league with Pittsburgh and Syracuse thrown in. (The irony: This league could look remarkably similar to the old Big East football league that once gave Temple the boot.)

I was asked on Twitter this week, “Would the [Temple] administration leave the AAC?”

My answer: “What’s quicker than a heartbeat?”

There are lots of other variables, but of that much, you can be sure.