Temple Owls were predicted to finish second in the East Division in the upcoming 2016 AAC Football season. The Owls finished (10-4, 7-1) last season and are the defending American East Champs. The Cherry and White received nine out of the 30 first place votes on the East side, finishing second behind South Florida who received 15 first place votes. Cincinnati received 6 first place votes.
The Houston Cougars, are predicted to finish first in the West as they received 30 out of the 30 first place votes for the West Division and 27 out of the 30 first place vote for the entire Conference. The Cougars are the defending Conference champions and finished eighth in the AP Poll released at the end of the year. Houston defeated Temple in the conference championship last year 24-13.
American Athletic Conference Championship
Votes- Team
27- Houston
2- USF
1- Temple
East Division
Team (First-Place Votes) Points
1. USF (15) 164
2. Temple (9) 144
3. Cincinnati (6) 130
4. UConn 89
5. East Carolina 55
6. UCF 48
West Division
Team (First-Place Votes) Points
1. Houston (30) 180
2. Navy 128
3. Memphis 124
4. Tulsa 92
5. SMU 65
6. Tulane 41
The Owls return six starters on both offense and defense including three-year starting quarterback Phillip Walker, and four all-conference honorees from last year; senior offensive lineman Dion Dawkins, junior defensive back Sean Chandler, redshirt senior defensive lineman Haason Reddick and senior running back Jahad Thomas.
Matt Rhule enters his fourth year as the head coach for the Owls. He has very high expectations heading into the season. The team reached ten wins for just the second time in program history last year, and never has a Temple team reached 11 wins or gone to bowls in consecutive seasons.
Seven out of Temple’s twelve games will be played at home this year, including two huge AAC match-ups with Eastern conference favorite South Florida on Friday, October 21, 7:00 p.m. and Cincinnati on Saturday, October 29.
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