PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Big East preseason poll was released, and there were the Temple Owls, picked to finish in last place.

It was like 2004 all over again. Or 2003. Or 1995 and 1996.

Heck, pick any season the Owls played in the Big East their first time around and the odds are strong that one of the worst programs in college football history would be buried at the bottom of the conference standings.

The Big East had plenty of strong reasons to shove Temple out the door almost a decade ago. But there are just as many factors why the conference reversed course and put out the welcome mat in 2012.

The Owls return to the Big East for the first time since 2004, not, as the media poll would suggest, as the same pushovers that put the program on the brink of extinction.

Under second-year coach Steve Addazio, these Owls are for real. These Owls are proven winners.