Penn State versus Temple is not the Keystone Rivalry.

We here at Penn State know that all the Temple fans are excited. They’ve all been waiting 10 years for this matchup again. They’re hosting at the Linc, expecting a big crowd, and making shirts that say “WE ARE glad we’re not Penn State.”

We get it. Temple thinks this is a rivalry. New flash, it isn’t.

Penn State and Temple have played 45 times heading into this Saturday’s game. The Nittany Lions have won 40 of those games, and yeah, Temple has won four, but three of those were before 1941, nearly a century ago.

According to the dictionary, a rivalry is a “continuous, ongoing state of competition between two or more people/groups.” Unfortunately for the Owls, Penn State doesn’t think about Temple or put in the effort off the field to beat Temple; we’re past that.

And before Temple fans start yelling about the 2015 upset, yes, we remember. How could we forget?

The Owls beat Penn State 27-10 at Lincoln Financial Field in 2015, handing the Nittany Lions one of the more embarrassing losses of the James Franklin era. Temple fans have every right to cherish that moment; it was a big deal.

Please enjoy the mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and whatever else you need to preserve the memory because apparently you’re going to be living off of it for another decade.

Let’s not forget Penn State got its revenge the following year, winning 34-27. And then? Nothing.

Ten years of nothing.

The so-called rivalry went into hibernation while Penn State played in the Big Ten, competed for conference championships, made the College Football Playoffs, and remained one of the biggest college football programs in the country.

Meanwhile, Temple finished 5-7 last season, and yeah, last season may not have been much better for Penn State, but now we’re in a new era.

And again, we don’t want to offend. But we kind of do.

The funniest part is that Temple’s own head coach has openly advocated playing Penn State or Pitt more frequently because of the games’ regional appeal. It feeds the Keystone Rivalry narrative.

But that’s where we have to disagree.

Temple wants this to be a rivalry because playing Penn State is a big deal for Temple. For Penn State, Temple is simply the team standing between the Nittany Lions and the next game.

That’s not an insult; it’s just a fact.

Penn State is Temple’s sixth-most frequent opponent, but the Owls haven’t exactly made a compelling case for annual hate.

If you want to call it a rivalry, you need rivalry behavior. You need close games and years of back-and-forth. You need true hatred.

What we actually have is one memorable win for Temple, 40 wins for Penn State, a new era of Nittany Lions football, and a whole lot of Penn State fans who will make themselves very comfortable in Temple’s the Eagles stadium on Saturday

So if Temple wants to make Saturday feel like a rivalry, that’s fine, but don’t expect Penn State fans to forget we’re 40-4-1 against the Owls, or forget that we’re in the Campbell Era.