So Ball State did not beat Boston College, but despite the lossthere were a couple of positives to come out of the Cardinals'football season opener on Thursday night.
First of all, there was the play of the team.
When a team has an 0-1 record, it can be difficult to argue thatit is off to a good start on the season, but for a school with thefootball history that Ball State has, to lose to a BCS school byonly eight points is to be applauded.
Few people expected them to be competitive against a big schoolthe likes of Boston College, and even fewer actually expected themto win the game. Still, the team battled on every single play andnot once showed that the thought of giving up was even an option.For a team that was criticized before it even had the opportunityto take the field and show its stuff, that kind of determination isat the very least admirable and may lead to bigger things down theroad.
Secondly, Ball State Stadium was as electric as it has been inrecent history, and not only because of the new permanent lightsthat were installed during the summer.
With an overall attendance of 23,718, nearly 8,000 of whom werestudents, more people saw Ball State's loss to Boston College thanhave seen any other Cardinal football game played in the stadium.The previous record was set last year in the home opener when theCards crushed Indiana State in front of 23,549 fans.
The new attendance record brings up another point: Ball Statecame together for something.
Sure, to some people, it was just a football game. After all theconflicts this campus has seen over the past year though, any timethat thousands of members of the Ball State community come togetherfor anything, it is a very big deal. It may not lead to thesolution to all or any of the conflicts facing the university atthe moment, but at least it shows that we can get together insupport of something, even if it is a sports team.
Although Thursday's game did not yield a win, it still could bea sign of the bright things to come; not only for the footballteam, but for Ball State as a whole.
And perhaps that was at least worth shedding some light on.
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