According to a Philadelphia Inquirer article, LaSalle is dropping its non-scholarship football program. For those of you who didn’t know LaSalle had a football team, you haven’t missed anything. They were 0-10 this past season and that was in Division I-AA. Whenever the prefix “sub” is attached to the level of play your athletic teams participate at, you know you’re in trouble, as with the case with La Salle Explorer’s Football Championship Subdivision.

So, that means Temple, Penn and Villanova are left to represent Philly collegiate football. Villanova can boast graduating Brian Westbrook but hasn’t done anything noteworthy since and Penn hasn’t mattered since the Ivy League stopped mattering. Yes, my friends, it is up to Al Golden, the Owls and TU football.

The men’s basketball team takes on its first opponent of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Classic today at 2:30 p.m. Fans can catch the action by heading to the Drought Horse, one of the few locations on campus with ESPNU.

The Owls look to rebound from their season-opening loss to No. 7 Tennessee against Providence, the first of three games they’ll play in the tournament. The Owls have not competed in a preseason tournament (aside from the preseason NIT) since 1998, when they took part in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic. They haven’t played a three-game tourney since the 1976 Rainbow Classic.

Guards Dionte Christmas and Mark Tyndale, who finished one-two in the Atlantic Ten Conference in scoring last season, look to recover from a poor first game. They shot a combined 7 for 26 from the field, including 2 of 11 from beyond the arc.

Geoffrey McDermott, a junior swingman, leads the Friars. McDermott averaged 9.5 points, 9.1 rebounds and 5.13 assists as the Friars reached the NIT last spring. They’ll be missing Herbert Hill, now a member of the Philadelphia 76ers and an All-Big East Conference First Team selection last season.

The Owls haven’t played the Friars since Dec. 29, 1983 – John Chaney’s second season with Temple. The Owls won that contest, 65-59, and own the all-time series, 3-0.

Temple’s next opponent will be either Arkansas or Charleston, depending on the outcome of the tournament’s other games. If the Owls play Arkansas, they’ll play at 5:30 p.m. Friday. If they play Charleston, they’ll tip off at 8 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPNU.

So, it turns out the football team actually got something out its loss to Penn State Saturday.

Temple lost, 31-0, to the No. 25 Nittany Lions at Lincoln Financial Field, failing to put points on the scoreboard despite four trips to the red zone.

Still, three recruits saw enough from coach Al Golden, quarterback Vaughn Charlton and 69,029 fans to verbally commit to the Owls, the Philadelphia Daily News reported.

Quinton White, Josh Richmond and Marcus Cooper became the latest recruits to say they’ll join the Owls next season. That gives Golden 19 total comitments, thus far.

White, a 6-foot-1, 215 pound linebacker, plays at Cardinal Dougherty, in Philadelphia.

Richmond, a 6-1, 200 pound defensive back, currently plays for Milford Prep, in New Berlin, NY. According to Owlscoop.com, Richmond will enroll at Temple for the spring semester.

Cooper, a 6-1, 185 pound wide receiver, has caught 15 touchdowns for Bloomfield High, in Connecticut.

Per NCAA rules, Golden cannot comment on recruits until they sign a letter of intent on national signing day, held each February.

The men’s basketball team opens its season tonight.

Really.

It might seem a bit early, especially considering the Owls didn’t play their first game until Nov. 21 last season, but the Owls tip off their second season under Fran Dunphy tonight at 7:30 p.m. against No. 7 Tennessee.
But the real reason the basketball season opener has flown under the radar is the event taking place at Lincoln Financial Field tomorrow. That’s where the football team welcomes No. 23 Penn State at noon.

Honestly, when is the last time the basketball team played under the shadow of its gridiron counterpart?
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The field hockey team heads into Friday’s Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament at Saint Joseph’s in an unfamiliar position. For the first time in school history they have been crowned as the regular season conference champions. This means that the Owls (15-5, 6-1) hold the No. 1 seed for their first round matchup against fourth-seeded Saint Joseph’s (10-8, 4-3).

Last season, a 2-1 regular season overtime loss to Saint Joseph’s bumped the Owls to the fourth seed in the tournament and an eventual loss to Richmond. This year the Owls’ consistency has them riding a six-game win streak into the postseason.

Senior forward Alli Lokey, who leads the conference with 18 goals, looks to continue her remarkable year and guide the Owls to their first A-10 championship since 1994. Lokey was named the A-10 Offensive Player of the Year Thursday. Ashley Bird, another senior, garnered A-10 Defensive Player of the Year honors. Also aiding the campaign is sophomore forward Dannah Brehm, who sizzled with three goals in the Owls’ 4-2 season finale win over the Hawks. The feat earned Brehm A-10 Player of the Week honors.

The Owls are 19-8 all-time against the Hawks, but know how difficult it is to eliminate the host team from the playoffs. Last season they were knocked out of the tournament courtesy of a 2-1 overtime loss to the host Spiders.

The tournament begins at 11 a.m. on Finnesey Field with the Owls facing the Hawks, and continues at 2 p.m. as second-seeded Massachusetts (11-8, 6-1) takes on the No. 3 Richmond (6-12, 5-2). The two winners will meet in the championship game on Saturday at 2 p.m.

With a pair of weekend wins, the Owls will reach their first NCAA Tournament since 1992. One or less wins and the team will anxiously wait to see if they are awarded an at-large bid.

As pointed out in Philly’s own 700 level, The Temple Owls have a better record than the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame’s media guide only dates back to 1946, and since then, the two teams have had the same record three times and Temple had a better record in 1963. The last (and only other) time Temple finished better than the Irish was in 1979. The Irish had a 7-4 record while the Owls had a 10-2 record.

And another interesting tidbit? The two teams have never played a game. I bet they’re just scared.

The men’s and women’s basketball teams can begin practicing for the 2007-08 season today.

Last year, Temple kicked off practice with a Midnight Madness event. A similar event, Cherry and White Night, will be held next Friday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m at McGonigle Hall.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will hold scrimmages that night before the teams lead fans in a Walk for the Cure, a special Coaches vs. Cancer event. Temple is one of three schools hosting a Walk for the Cure. The others are Saint Joseph’s and Syracuse.

The Diamond Gems Dance Team, cheerleaders and marching band will also participate in Cherry and White night. Students can pick up their tickets to the Temple/Penn State football game at the event.