Over The Pylon

Now is the perfect time to create a wish list for what us dumb fans want to see our intelligent athletic administrators, coaches, and even sports writers to do in the coming year. You have no idea how hard it was to write that.

5. No more attendance stories!
I am tired of them and it is a losing battle to fight. Nothing says die-hard Ball State fan quite like staring at the bottom of the box score wondering why less than 10,000 fans showed up. We have to stop this habit.

Look, Ball State is in a bad spot when it comes to football attendance. Only a portion of alumni care about football, and only a portion of them still live near Muncie. Making things worse is the lack of connection between Ball State and Muncie. There is none.
Students will come to games but only if the weather is good. Many just come out for the tailgating and are too trashed to make it into the game. If they do make it is only for a half. It’s one thing to see a stadium of empty seats. It’s much worse to see a mass exodus in the second quarter of every home game.

These factors make it hard as hell for Scheumann Stadium to be packed. Constantly bringing it up and calling people out is not going to solve it. In fact it probably has made things worse. I’m pulling out the white flag on this one and hope other passionate fans (all 1,000 of us) do the same.

4. Get a player drafted
Not sure why but NFL scouts have not been too kind to Ball State prospects. It is great seeing players signed after the draft but if Central Michigan can score the No. 1 pick we should be able to land someone in the seventh round. Right?

3. Better black uniforms
I was pumped for the black uniforms but then it was nothing too special when they premiered against Ohio. It was just white numbers on solid black. They didn’t even have any names on the back of them. It looked like a poorly funded high school team. Ball State is not that… wait… crap.

2. Basketball buzz
New coach James Whitford has one big task for him in his first season as Ball State coach. Make Ball State basketball relevant.
This does not mean the Cardinals need to win in his first year and make it to the NCAA tournament. Create a style of play that makes fan want to see will suffice. Talk trash in press conferences, throw a chair, do something! These seasons of the Indianapolis Star placing a 30 word synopsis of a BSU game on page 5 must end. IPFW cannot receive the same media attention as Ball State for another year.

1. Less scandals
College football is reeking with scandal as Oregon and Auburn are the two most recent examples. Basically, the 2011 national championship game looks like a scam. Throw in Notre Dame losing their quarterback, chaos at Rutgers and everything looks dreadful.

This is nothing new but it seems worse than ever. I still love college football more than the NFL but the gap is smaller. Every outcome is suspect years later. Every coach is waiting to jump to the NFL when the NCAA finally catches up to their recruiting violations. Power conferences are stealing teams from each other destroying historic rivalries and weakening college basketball in the process. Yet fans continue to drink beer, eat burgers, and party every Saturday. When ignorance is the best route problems can only intensify.

Filed under: Ball State, BallStateFootball, NCAA |