Eastern Michigan

The Temple football team had a three-point lead late in the game yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field, and the only question was whether the Owls would put an opponent away this time. They did. Temple quarterback Adam DiMichele hit wide receiver Jason Harper for a 45-yard score, which set a school record for touchdowns in a game and stood up as the deciding points in the Owls' 55-52 victory over Eastern Michigan. The touchdown by Harper increased Temple's lead to 55-45 with 2 minutes, 50 second left to play.

OK, only five months until the start of the football season in Happy Valley. Penn State's basketball team tried its best to make the students forget about the nationally ranked football program. They cast a spell over the campus for the last two weeks, winning the Atlantic 10 Tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1965. But yesterday not even Joe Paterno, who made the pilgrimmage to hostile Syracuse just to watch the Lions play, could stop the bubble from bursting.

The North Carolina Walkover, alias the East Regional, continued on schedule last night. The Tar Heels used yet another Cinderella for target practice. Eastern Michigan, the last hope for fanciers of the long shot, was the walking bulls-eye this time, succumbing at the Meadowlands, 93-67, thus joining Northeastern and Villanova as Carolina cannon fodder. In three NCAA tournament games, Carolina's cumulative winning margin is a spread-busting 77 points. It hasn't hurt, of course, that five of the top eight seeds in this regional swooned early on, smoothing the way for the Heels.

While he amassed 8,595 career rushing yards, the state's No. 2 all-time mark, Owen J. Roberts tailback Ryan Brumfield didn't exactly have college recruiters beating down his family's front door. "I guess my size had something to do with it," the 5-foot-10, 178-pound senior said. "It was a little frustrating, but I didn't have any control over it. I'm going to try my hardest to make the teams that didn't recruit me regret it. " Brumfield will get that opportunity at the Division I-A level, and primarily against Mid-American Conference foes.

Big East champion Connecticut, the top seed in the Southeast Region, advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the third straight year yesterday, scampering past a tough Eastern Michigan team, 95-81. The Huskies broke open a close game early in the second half, using hot shooting from point guard Doron Sheffer and an enormous rebounding edge to build an eight-point lead midway through the half. Sheffer led Connecticut (32-2) with 27 points, which tied his career high, on 10-of-14 shooting.

Having changed its nickname from the Hurons to the Eagles so as not to offend American Indians, Eastern Michigan will bring a politically correct football team into Beaver Stadium today to play 10th-ranked Penn State. It won't bring much else. Eastern Michigan (0-2), a member of the Mid-American Conference, has lost its games by a combined score of 58-26, going down against Akron, 27-9, and Louisiana Tech, 31-17. It's little wonder that Penn State coach Joe Paterno did some fancy scrambling this week to motivate his Nittany Lions for what is expected to be an easy victory.

Facing Bowling Green in what was perhaps its most important outing under third-year coach Bobby Wallace, the Temple football team answered the challenge last night in its home opener before 15,231 fans at Franklin Field. In the process, the Owls kept their visions of a winning season very much alive. Temple, which went winless in nonconference games on its way to 2-9 finishes during Wallace's first two seasons, improved its record this fall to 2-1 with a 31-14 victory that included a three-touchdown halftime lead.

Drew Astorino has achieved legend status in Edinboro, a quiet town in northwestern Pennsylvania that went bonkers twice during his senior year of high school when he scored the winning touchdown and the winning basket to give General McLane a pair of PIAA Class AAA state championships. While he hasn't quite reached that lofty level as a three-year starter in the Penn State secondary, Astorino has surpassed the expectations of many who thought he was too small to play major college football, including most Division I schools that passed on him despite his athletic feats.

The Temple Owls have been here before. In 1993, they opened with a 31-28 victory at Eastern Michigan, in coach Ron Dickerson's debut. The next game was against California, at Veterans Stadium. Dickerson was convinced that Cal, which was 2-0 and would finish 9-4, could be had. He was badly mistaken. The Owls lost, 58-0. They would not win another game until the following season. Last Saturday, Temple opened with a 28-24 win at Eastern Michigan, the fifth win in Dickerson's 34-game tenure.

THE POWER conferences are taking the day off, but championship week rolls on. One mid-major league is just getting started, while four others wrap things up tonight. Here's the rundown: STARTING TODAY Mid-American Conference Regular-season champ: Akron (21-10, 13-3) is the No. 1 seed for the first time in school history. The Zips' leading scorer is Zeke Marshall (10.3 ppg). What is the likelihood a guy named Zeke would lead the Zips? MAC mites: Akron's biggest hurdle will be Buffalo, which beat the Zips twice.

The Mid-American Conference announced a new divisional alignment for football beginning in 2012. Massachusetts joins the conference, bringing the number of football schools to 14. UMass will compete in the East Division, while Bowling Green will move to the West. This alignment is for football only. UMass won't be eligible for the conference football championship or a bowl game until the 2013 football season. East Division: Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Massachusetts, Miami (Ohio)

Two teams with an eye on a bowl will provide Temple's regular-season finale Friday at noon against Kent State with a playoff atmosphere at Lincoln Financial Field. Temple (7-4) is bowl eligible, while Kent State (5-6) still needs a sixth win to become bowl eligible. While the winner isn't guaranteed a bowl berth, the loser is likely to stay home. That is definitely the situation in Kent State's case, which adds even more to the homecoming of Golden Flashes first-year head coach Darrell Hazell, a graduate of Cinnaminson High.

ATHLETES ARE conditioned to tolerate a certain amount of pain. Baseball players occasionally are beaned, rodeo riders get thrown from bucking bulls and broncos. And football players . . . well, they usually leave the field at least a little bruised and sore. It's the price they expect to pay for doing what they do. But when a player finds himself being strapped onto a gurney, unable to feel his arms and with his head and neck immobilized, he can't help but imagine that this injury might go beyond whatever discomfort he has experienced before.

Big Ten The conference still boasts three of the 13 undefeated teams remaining in the FBS, and two of them will be in for tough games Saturday. No. 11 Michigan travels to East Lansing and a meeting with archrival and 23d-ranked Michigan State, while 16th-ranked Illinois hosts an Ohio State team still reeling from having blown a 21-point lead in last week's loss to Nebraska. All five games Saturday will be intradivisional matchups.    Conference      All Games    Legends W   L   Pts   OP   W   L   Pts   OP    Michigan.

LIKE PRESIDENTIAL candidates in the same political party, Penn State quarterbacks Rob Bolden and Matt McGloin are in the unenviable position of publicly focusing more on defeating the representative of the other party, namely that week's upcoming opponent, than on taking swipes at one another. They have their differences, sure, but team unity must be maintained for the common good. Yesterday, for the first time this season, both Bolden and McGloin were made available for the weekly teleconferences in which inquiring media minds wanted to know more about their position papers on, well, their position.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - It should have been a good day Saturday for Penn State, with a 34-6 thrashing of Eastern Michigan supposedly propelling the Nittany Lions into their Big Ten schedule on a high note. Matt McGloin and Rob Bolden threw the team's first touchdown passes of the season - four in all. Derek Moye caught two scoring tosses and achieved a receiving milestone. The defense did not allow the Eagles (2-2) to reach the end zone. But a pall hung over the Lions (3-1)

Drew Astorino has achieved legend status in Edinboro, a quiet town in northwestern Pennsylvania that went bonkers twice during his senior year of high school when he scored the winning touchdown and the winning basket to give General McLane a pair of PIAA Class AAA state championships. While he hasn't quite reached that lofty level as a three-year starter in the Penn State secondary, Astorino has surpassed the expectations of many who thought he was too small to play major college football, including most Division I schools that passed on him despite his athletic feats.

MAC PRESEASON POLL Voted by the league media; first-place votes in parentheses: EAST DIVISION 1. Miami (4). . . 97 2. Ohio (8). . . 96 3. TEMPLE (4). . . 88 4. Kent State. . . 57 5. Bowling Green. . . 48 6. Buffalo. . . 37 7. Akron. . . 25 WEST DIVISION 1. Toledo (8). . . 83 2. Northern Illinois (5). . . 81 3. Western Michigan (2). . . 76 4. Central Michigan (1). . . 55 5. Ball State.

The Temple football team has been selected to finish third in the East Division of the Mid-American Conference. The preseason poll, determined by the league's media contingent, was announced at the annual MAC Football Media Day today at Ford Field in Detroit. Miami was selected to win the East by a single vote over Ohio. Miami received four first-place votes and Ohio got eight. Temple received four first-place votes and finished with 88 points, followed by Kent State, Bowling Green, Buffalo and Akron.