As we try to sort out the college football schedule, with not a lot of time to spare, Temple and other Group of Five schools are sitting back trying to figure out what’s actually going to happen next month.

The Owls lost their non-conference Miami game, when the Atlantic Coast Conference decided to play a conference-only schedule with independent Notre Dame included. Now we’ve got news that the American Athletic Conference has approved an 8+4 schedule for 2020, which leaves open flexibility for scheduling non-conference games.

From the AAC website:

“In football, the plan calls for conference competition to begin Sept. 19 and for each of The American’s teams to play eight conference games on their originally scheduled dates. Nonconference games may be played at the discretion of the individual schools, with the understanding that the opponents will strictly adhere to protocols and standards for testing, pregame, in-game and postgame operations set by The American’s Medical Advisory Group. Depending on the need to potentially reschedule regular-season games, The American Football Championship will be played on either Dec. 5, 12 or 19 at the stadium of the regular-season champion. A decision regarding the date of the championship game will be made no earlier than Nov. 1.”

Originally, Temple was set to play their typical AAC schedule, minus divisional opponent UConn, who left the conference after the 2019 season, went independent, and then canceled their 2020 campaign OUTRIGHT! <Mike Missanelli voice>.

The original slate was to include non-conference Miami, Idaho, Rutgers, and UMass, plus AAC West opponents Navy, Memphis, SMU, and Tulane. Tulsa and Houston were not on the schedule, which looked like this when the Rutgers game was removed:

We’ll see what happens here. Temple has flexibility to add four-non conference games if they’d like, and the Big 12 has openings with their 9+1 schedule. They could perhaps keep Idaho and UMass, or just play eight games and call it a season.

Only time will tell!