Attempts to land a 12th game for the 2012 season have officially come to an end, Temple announced Tuesday.
The Owls had been in talks with Hawaii about scheduling a game around the second weekend of December, after the Warriors had concluded their regular season. Hawaii stated late last month that the school was “going through the due diligence” in talks with the Big East school.
Those discussions, and Temple’s bowl hopes, went nowhere as far as an agreement is concerned, even as the Owls were under the impression that a deal was all but consummated.
“Temple University went above and beyond normal scheduling procedures in an effort to provide our student-athletes with the opportunity to play in a 12th football game this season,” said Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw. “Unfortunately that will not be possible as our negotiations with the University of Hawaii have ended. We felt that we had an agreement in place with the University of Hawaii, but in the end its administration was unable to fulfill it due to unforeseen circumstances.”
Because Temple left the MAC, with eight conference games, for the Big East, with seven conference games, earlier this year, the Owls were left with a one-game hole in their 2012 slate.
Sitting at 3-6 on the season, the Owls are also officially ineligible for a bowl game this season. With the threshold for eligibility at six wins, and just two games remaining, Temple will be sitting at home for the postseason. The Hawaii game would’ve technically kept the Owls bowl hopes alive.