The American Athletic Conference announced the results from its media preseason poll on Tuesday.
The Owls were picked to finish second in the East Division in the American Athletic Conference. They also received one vote to become conference champions.
After a season last year, when Temple recorded its second 10-win season in school history, the Owls received nine out of 30 votes to win the East Division.
South Florida captured 15 out of 30 votes and is the favorite to win the East Division. Cincinnati got six votes, which placed the Bearcats third in the East.
Houston is coming off a 13-1 season as defending conference champions after defeating Temple 24-13 in last year’s conference championship.
Last year’s conference champions are favorites to win the conference in 2016, nabbing 27 of the 30 votes, while South Florida and Temple got two and one votes, respectively.
While Houston is set to return 11 starters from last year’s squad, 14 starters will be coming back to North Broad Street for Matt Rhule’s Owls.
Following the Bearcats are Connecticut, East Carolina and Central Florida in the East Division. The Owls went 4-1 against East Division opponents last season.
Temple is set to start training camp on Saturday Aug. 6, at Edberg Olson Hall. The regular season will begin for the Owls Sept. 2 against Army at Lincoln Financial Field.
Tom Ignudo can be reached at tom.ignudo@temple.edu or on Twitter @Ignudo5
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