Temple's bowl game possibilities include Hawaii, Boca Raton, St. Petersburg

There are 39 college football bowl games and 129 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, so qualifying as one of the 78 bowl teams doesn't appear to be the most difficult challenge.

Yet the positives for many for a program that earns a bowl bid, and Temple hopes to take advantage of this status in the next few weeks. The Owls became bowl-eligible for the fourth consecutive year  with a 43-22  win at Tulsa on Saturday that improved their record to 6-6.

Temple will begin to benefit this week, when coach Geoff Collins and his assistant coaches hit the road for recruiting.

"To show recruits you are going to a bowl game is huge," Collins said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Not only does it give recruiting an extra bounce, the time that it gives the coaching staff with the team is invaluable. Temple now will get a few weeks of extra practice, which helps with evaluating players for next year.

And even more than that, it gives Collins some extra time with the senior class, a group he has bonded with deeply. He'll always remember his first senior class, the group that showed strong leadership, especially when Temple fell to 3-5 and needed to go 3-1 in the final four games to become bowl eligible.

"They became the all-time winningest class in Temple history," Collins said, referring to the fact that this senior class has won 32 games, one more than the 2011 class. "I can't think of a better group of guys, who I have genuine love and affection for and getting to coach these seniors for three more weeks is what I am most excited about."

Another advantage is that playing in a bowl game is like a three-hour infomercial for the participating teams in a nationally televised game. Now the question is what game Temple will compete in when the bowls are announced on Sunday.

The American Athletic Conference has partnerships with seven bowl games and has seven teams that are bowl eligible. However, the winner of Saturday's AAC title game between Central Florida and Memphis will almost assuredly play in a New Years bowl game.

Besides UCF, Memphis and Temple, the other AAC bowl eligible teams are Navy, SMU, Houston, and South Florida.

A source familiar with the situation said everything is fluid concerning Temple's postseason destination, but the bowls in St. Petersburg, Fla., Boca Raton, Fla.,  and Hawaii are among ones that the Owls are candidates to compete in.

Here are the seven bowls with AAC partnerships.

AutoNation Cure Bowl: American vs. Sun Belt at Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Fla. (Dec. 16, 2:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network)

Boca Raton Bowl: American vs. Conference USA at Florida Atlantic University Stadium, Boca Raton, Fla. (Dec. 19, 7 p.m., ESPN)

DXL Frisco Bowl: American vs. TBD at Toyota Stadium Frisco, Texas (Dec. 20, 8 p.m., ESPN)

Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl: American vs. Conference USA at Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Fla. (Dec. 21, 8 p.m., ESPN)

Birmingham Bowl: American vs SEC at Legion Field, Birmingham, Ala., (Dec. 23, noon, ESPN)

Hawaii Bowl: American vs. Mountain West at Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawai'i (Dec. 24, 8:30 p.m., ESPN)

Military Bowl: American vs. ACC or Notre Dame at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Annapolis, Md. (Dec. 28, 1:30 p.m. ESPN)