NEW YORK -- Nearly a decade after Temple's moribund football program was pushed out of the Big East, the revitalized Owls are rejoining the conference -- and bringing along their potent men's basketball team.

The school will move to the Big East for football next season and all other sports in 2013.

"We didn't deserve, truthfully, to be in the football competition in those years. But it's hard to get kicked out," Lewis Katz, chairman of Temple's athletic committee, said at a news conference during the Big East men's basketball tournament Wednesday.

"When we started to negotiate to come back in, I thought it was just a wonderful, wonderful way to remove a blemish on our football program. ... We (now) have a real football program," he added. "So we think we're going to give the Big East exactly what they deserve, and really they've given us financially the opportunity to run a stable program."

Temple football played in the Mid-American Conference last season, while all other programs, including men's basketball, are in the Atlantic 10. The Owls will pay an exit fee of $6 million to the MAC and $1 million to the A-10, with the Big East providing financial assistance in the form of future revenue distributions.

"This is arguably the greatest day in the history of Temple Athletics," athletic director Bill Bradshaw said in a statement. "We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the Big East and its member schools."

Temple was a Big East member in football only from 1991 to 2004, but was forced out because the program was one of the worst in major college football. The Owls failed to meet minimum requirements for membership, most notably in attendance, facilities and fielding a competitive team.

Temple played as an independent and eventually landed in the MAC in 2007. While there, it turned its program around and ran off winning seasons the past three years.

"Where we are right now, we're not trying to fumble around and see if we can find our way into major college football," coach Steve Addazio said. "This is a plan that's been going on for quite some time."

In men's basketball, the Owls have long been a power in the A-10 and are the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament this week in Atlantic City, N.J.