Ball State's athletic department should stop accepting mediocrity as improvement and sack the school's head football coach Bill Lynch.
This decision should be obvious following the Cardinals fifth consecutive losing season. The Cardinals have an 11-34 record in the past five seasons. The only two bright spots on Bill Lynch's tainted resume are 1995 and 1996. The Cardinals chalked up 15-8 record during that time, thanks in large in part to the athletes Paul Schudel recruited.
The Ball State athletic department strives and works towards being a nationally recognized athletic program. Each year Ball State is under the watchful eye of the NCAA. They keep the pressure on Ball State for keeping its Division I status for football.
Why then does Ball State settle for mediocrity when it comes to the football program? How much longer can they accept losing numbers on the field and in the stands? With so much pressure on the athletic department and the university, you would think there would be more emphasis placed on improving the product on the field.
Athletic director Andrea Seger openly stated that Ball State football reached its goal. Was the goal its fifth straight losing season? Since when have you heard a major Division I athletic director say they are pleased with a losing record and pleased for not playing any games in December or January. Mediocrity at its best.
Seger and the rest of the sports information department must be watching their fair share of the "West Wing," because they have mastered being spin doctors, with all the hyping of the "co-championship." When in reality, Ball State finished third in the MAC West, and really maybe was eighth best in the MAC.
Ball State, this year and in past years, has been taking a back seat, cross that last line out. Ball State has been riding in the trunk of the MAC, while teams like Marshall, Toledo, Bowling Green, Kent, Northern Illinois and Miami are all in the driver's seat. The message to all Ball State students, from university officials, is when you get a job out of school, don't worry if you fail for five years straight at your trade, your company will still want you. We could all be so lucky to have Seger as our boss.
Coaching changes are a common occurrence around college football, and Ball State should be no exception. Bill Lynch did not win games, and that is the bottom line. For all of you breaking out the pen and paper to write a letter saying, "maybe if the team got more support, you would see results," take off your high school letter jacket - this is a big time business, a huge money-maker for the school. This game is filled with big business bowl games, TV rights, recruiting and multi-million dollar facilities.
Bill Lynch, while not always producing on the field, has always had the numbers to show that his players do well in the community and in the classroom. However, the Cardinals rap sheet off the field, this year was a pretty ugly one, filled with crimes and drug charges. Honestly, I have never heard one bad word about Bill Lynch, but it's time for a change around campus.
It is time for the athletic department to step forward and make a move for a coach who knows how to run a major college football program. The school had the money and the chance to make calls to former Steeler and Vanderbilt coach Woody Widenhofer, former Georgia coach Jim Donnan, former North Carolina coach Carl Torbush and Southern Mississippi's offensive coordinator Chris Klenakis.
I do enjoy Ball State football - I have attended all home games and even made the trips to Kentucky, Indiana and Florida. I would not be writing this letter if I didn't care. I have just been bewildered by the school's passive stance. I have never seen a school so proud of a losing record.
Maybe the school should worry more about the future of Ball State football and less about tailgating. Once again, I end the fall like many Ball State fans and students by saying thank goodness it's basketball season. It did not come soon enough.
Write to Troy attaschneider@bsu.edu
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