Major college football’s most irrelevant game of musical chairs continues. The Big East needs another team to fill out its 2012 schedule. With Boise State forcing schools to part with nearly $10 million to bring them a year early, the masters of planning reportedly have moved on to Temple.

The Owls have a far more attainable buyout. They must pay the MAC $2.5 million to extricate the football program and the Atlantic 10 $2 million for their other sports teams. Temple, booted from the Big East for not being good enough at football in 2004, also has an offer from the MWC/CUSA merger conference.

Adding Temple would solve the immediate scheduling conflict, and saved the cash-strapped Big East some money. More importantly, going to 13 football teams could be a hedge against the almost inevitable loss of Louisville to the Big 12 or Connecticut to the ACC during the next realignment round.

[Photo via US Presswire]