Rick Chryst, MAC Commissioner:
"I am honored today to represent the Mid American Conference Council of Presidents and the 12 member institutions of the MAC for today's announcement. This is a significant and important day in the long and deep history of the Mid-American Conference. As we enter our 59th year, we stand as the fourth oldest of the 11 Division 1-A leagues. By industry standards (we are) a remarkably stable conference with a clear sense of institutional mission and shared values as it relates to intercollegiate athletics. We know who we are and we are proud of the student athletes, coaches and university communities that we serve. We don't operate in a vacuum however, and the turbulence within the Division I-A environment, particularly over the last 24 months, is challenging us all. Over twenty percent of the institutions in I-A conferences have changed addresses within the last two years with outcomes in some cases as surprising as they have been dramatic. Further, contemporaneous with the conference realignments have been two additional structural adjustments, that in my view, will have an equal if not greater impact on the major college football landscape.
"The first relates to the bowl championship series, specifically and the bowl system generally. Make no mistake access to the postseason for each of those 119 programs is improving when the new BCS opens and expands with the 2006 season. The elite bowl games will become available to an even broader number of institutions. Combine that with additional bowl opportunities underneath the BCS and also factor in the revived IA membership criteria and 1AA football enhancements and the unmistakable result is, in my view, major college football will be as inclusive as it has ever been.
"Secondly, beyond the competitive system just described, is the seriousness of the academic and compliance expectations of the new NCAA world. Presidential governance, academic progress rates, graduation success rates, in my judgment these cease to be cliches but will absolutely become both the internal and increasingly the public measurement of how well are we doing our jobs. Not in place of wins and losses but certainly at least for our presidents, competitive success will not come at their expense.
"So it is been within this context that the MAC Council of Presidents has evaluated membership expansion and why we are so energized by today's announcement. Referenced against the NCAA's strategic plan and the developing MAC membership standards we feel strongly that Temple University is an outstanding fit with the Mid-American Conference. It goes beyond comparable institutional profiles, beyond bricks and mortar, beyond the Linc, beyond the football complex. Most of all what has impressed our group has been the people. The leadership at Temple University, President Adamany, and his senior cabinet, the board of trustees and the institutional commitment to maintain 106 years of college football at the highest level. Coach Wallace and his program and Bill Bradshaw and his capable and aggressive staff. We are very hopeful that this relationship can be the missing piece for Temple football. We are excited for the Owl football program to now call the MAC home.
"MAC Football is experiencing unprecedented competitive success right now. Five bowl teams from a year ago and the best bowl record in the country since 1998. Over 20 national television appearances annually. From a league that didn't have a single nationally televised regular season game from 1987-1999, the MAC championship game at Ford Field, like Lincoln Financial, a world class facility. Unlike Lincoln Financial and important for Detroit in December, a dome. And noteworthy NFL success, a record 11 draft picks in the recent NFL draft and more draft picks from the MAC in the past seven years than in the previous 20. Fifty-eight MAC players on NFL rosters from a year ago and included in that group, a few quarterbacks you might have heard of. Finally, and not to be forgotten, the top percentage of football programs at public institutions graduating fifty percent of its students or more than any conference in the country. And as we look to sustain this growth, we are confident that Temple University will be an immediate and important contributor.
"Thus, on behalf on the MAC Council of Presidents, Dr. Adamany, I am privileged today to officially extend to you and Temple University an invitation to join the Mid-American Conference as an affiliate football member for the 2005 and 2006 seasons with bowl and television eligibility and beginning in 2007 participation as a full football member of the MAC's East Division."
Dr. David Adamany, Temple President:
"Rick, I want to thank you for your invitation to join the Mid-American Conference. The Temple University Board of Trustees and I are very pleased to accept the invitation. I want to say today that all of our dealings with Rick Chryst and with the presidents in the MAC have been characterized by good spirits. I've been impressed that in my conversations the emphasis has been as much on academic performance as on athletic performance. There has been a spirit of good will throughout. There has been an interest in Temple and what it can bring to the conference and in turn we have been interested in how we might relate to the Mid-American Conference programs. President Peters, the president at Northern Illinois is the chairman of the Council of Presidents. He cannot be with us today because of work elsewhere but...he is absolutely a first-rate leader for the Mid-American Conference. I know because I once tried to recruit him as a dean and instead of becoming a dean he became a president. So we look forward to very good and strong relationship with this conference.
"These institutions are in large measure, similar to us. Many are urban institutions. Many have a mix of commuting and residential students. Many are located in big industrial cities. Many are the first opportunity to send children to college. There are such similarities between the MAC institutions and Temple that it is hard to imagine a fit that could be better. We're very pleased also with the high academic standards in the MAC Conference. It sets a target and a challenge for us that we fully intend to meet. The Conference is highly competitive in football as all of you know with many bowl opportunities, many bowl invitiations in the last few years and that will be a challenge for out football program and I know that Coach Wallace and his team will rise to that challenge.
"Your invitation to us comes at a very good time. Temple is in the midst of enormous change and growth, with 8,000 residential students and the highest enrollment in the history of the University. We are recruiting new faculty from the best universities in the country, 100 members in the last two years and many more to come. We will be a good fit for you academically and we know that we will be a good fit for you athletically. Some in the audience wondered whether this affiliation would come and it has come. It has come because of patient and careful work by Bill Bradshaw, by Coach Bobby Wallace, by George Moore, our general council, who led our team in negotiations with the MAC but especially it came because of the good spirits of our colleagues in the Mid-American Conference.
"The challenge now shifts from whether we can join that Conference to whether we can be good members in that conference. It will be a challenge for Temple alumni and our friends throughout the Philadelphia area to turn out on Saturday afternoons to create a crowd, an audience, worthy of the teams that we will be playing. It will be a challenge to the alumni and friends to raise the money to support an outstanding football program on a continuing basis. It will be a challenge for those of us in the administration to give good care and support to the football program as we enter the Mid-American Conference. It's going to be a challenge in Philadelphia. One of our colleagues wrote in the newspaper yesterday that these institutions are not known in Philadelphia and will they draw a crowd. We don't think that the issue here is whether these institutions are known but whether Temple is known. Whether Temple is a hometown institution of enormous importance. Whether Temple is important when it plays football. Will it draw crowds in the extended Philadelphia community? We hope that will be the case but it is a challenge to Philadelphia to continue to support its only 1A football program by turning out.
"So there's been a great deal of good that has been done so far, there's a lot of challenge still ahead of us to make this a successful affiliation with the Mid-American Conference and a successful Division 1A football program. Such great work has been done and difficult work lies ahead. Rick, we intend to accomplish that work and be a good member of the conference that will give as much as we receive and one that will fully fulfill your expectations."
Bill Bradshaw, Temple Director of Athletics:
"We're very happy to accept membership and, in behalf of everyone in the athletic department, I'd like to welcome you all on this very special occasion. We just want to thank many people that are responsible, both within the University and out, for this special moment that we have today. First of all, to the senior leadership at Temple, starting with Dr. David Adamany and his will to get this done, the board of trustees, our chairman of the board, Howard Gittis, the chairman of the task force on Athletics, Patrick O'Connor, Senior Vice President Clay Armbrister, chief of staff Greg Rost, our university council who did the great job of putting all of this together, George Moore, and our faculty athletic representative JoAnne Epps. To the senior leadership, we thank you for your guidance and the confidence in our ability in the athletic department. To Bill Mlkvy, the "Owl Without a Vowel," the chairman of the President's advisory board on athletics, to Harris Chernow, President of the Owl Club, Dr. Peter Chodoff, Chairman of the football field development committee...
"We thank everyone in the media for their patience and understanding that in this fast food world some of the best meals often take the most time to prepare. We thank you for being patient with us.
"To the Mid-American Conference, Rick, your presidents, athletic directors, conference officials for giving Temple this exceptional opportunity. And especially to MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst for your vision, creative spirit, perseverance and courage in seeing this through. That Temple will be bowl eligible and participate in the MAC television packages this coming football season is nothing short of amazing and directly the result of Rick's genius of scheduling. So, just as we join the MAC, we want him to join Temple football.
"The Mid-American Conference will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2006, which Rick mentioned is the fourth oldest of the 11 I-A conferences. With the addition of Temple University the conference is ranked third in undergraduate population, second in total enrollment and will count two million alumni nationwide. Make no mistake, the MAC is big-time football. As Rick has mentioned, the Conference has a multi-year contract with ESPN for the regular season as well as with ESPN and ABC for the championship game of the MAC. The MAC had five bowl bids this year, was close to getting a sixth bowl and since 1999 has the best bowl record in Division I-A. The Conference had 11 players taken in this year's draft, 27 in the past three years and recent MAC graduates include outstanding quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger, Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington. The Conference has been long been called the cradle of coaches and is a variable who's who of some of the most outstanding coaches in the past 60 years of college football. And while the MAC quietly produced five bowl teams and 11 NFL draft picks, it found time this past year to have the highest graduation rate of any conference in I-A. Quite simply the Mid American Conference is one of the most unpretentious, understated and underrated conferences in the country.
"In the past, our excuses for losing were as numerous as were our losses. Coulda, woulda, shoulda...However, things have changed dramatically over the years. Temple plays football in one of the finest football stadiums on the planet and has one of the greatest training facilities in I-A. Today, we join one of the greatest conferences in Division I-A football. I believe that Temple and the Mid-American Conference will be a great fit and we at Temple look for a long, successful and enjoyable relationship with the MAC in the future."
Bobby Wallace, Temple Head Coach:
"This completes the puzzle to have the pieces it takes to compete at the Division I level. It has been a tough, hard ride for the administration, but they persisted.
"A lot of people have the misunderstanding that now we can win games automatically because of who we're playing," Wallace said. "Well, that's very naïve. What we can celebrate is that for the first time there's not a cloud over our heads. Our coaches can go into kids' homes and say, 'Come to Temple. It's a great university, a comfortable place to live, and we're in the MAC.'"
