Big East Expansion: Villanova & Temple Sharing Lincoln Financial Field?

Mike Kern (Temple alum, keep in mind) published an interesting story in the Philadelphia Daily News today that may be shedding some light on the Villanova/Temple aspect to the conference realignment crisis. The most interesting tidbit however, was that Villanova and Temple may be discussing both teams playing home games (or in Villanova's case, probably just a few) at Lincoln Financial Field, home to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Sources said the possibility of Temple and Villanova both playing in Lincoln Financial Field also has been discussed. Temple supposedly has a contract that runs through 2017 and is in fact looking for an extension. Villanova's FBS plans included playing at PPL Park in Chester, home of the MLS Union, which reportedly could be expanded to seat some 30,000.

Now obviously, pure logic suggests that it would be nearly impossible for the Eagles, Temple, and Villanova to all play 100% of their home games there. Hell, there are just 3 weeks when neither the Eagles or Temple are using the facility.

So any involvement of Villanova would probably mean that they'd only play a couple of games there, likely some bigger out-of-conference games (Notre Dame, Penn State?) that would generate huge attendance numbers.

Again, these are really just rumours, at this point, but Villanova would be smart to demand that they get a couple of games there a year if they were to agree to Temple becoming a conference member.

Then again, if you ask me, a fully-packed stadium holding 30,000 people (PPL Park) is a lot more appealing to me than a half-empty stadium holding 35,000 people (LFF). Pittsburgh knows what we're talking about.

And let's not forget, this all really comes down to the Philadelphia Eagles. If memory serves, they had the Temple lease jammed down their throats by the city to get some taxpayer money aid in building the stadium. I doubt they'd be happy about adding another team to the mix.

Thoughts on this everyone?