A year ago, in a column that ran in the 2004 edition of Roll Call, I called for the athletic program to schedule Indiana University to a battle of the lesser Indiana schools.
Someone listened.
Sure, it probably was not my column explaining why it would be a good idea to play Indiana that sparked Bubba Cunningham and the Hoosiers athletics staff to agree to the game, but that doesn’t change that it’s a pretty cool idea.
I was a tad meaner back then, suggesting that it would be, in short terms, a feud based entirely on mediocrity.
But now we have a unique opportunity. In less than 12 months, we have a realistic opportunity to beat Indiana University in two mainstream sports. As a transplant Hoosier and someone who historically has detested IU, this is glorious.
On New Year’s Eve, our men’s basketball team will take on the Hoosiers in Worthen Arena in front of what in all likelihood will be a capacity crowd. Calling it a home crowd, with all the IU fans in the area (and, yes, even in the school) may be a stretch. But beating IU—with the team we have this season—on our home floor is possible.
In 2006, our football team will take on the Hoosiers. While Indiana has the former coach of our rivals University of Miami (OH) (the same one who coached the 49-7 Miami win here at Homecoming in 2003), he will be in only his second year of rebuilding, while our own Brady Hoke should be well on his way to, if Hoke lives up to his billing, rebuilding the Cardinals.
That makes the IU game pivotal to coach Hoke’s future at our program. By the time the Hoosiers come to Muncie, we had better be ready for them.
I want us to beat IU. In fact, we need to beat IU.
Recently, Ball State University has been beating up on the Hoosiers in smaller sports. When Ball State and IU met in baseball last year, it looked like the Boston Red Sox taking on the Bad News Bears, with the Cardinals winning 17-4. The Cardinals upset the Hoosiers in soccer last year, winning 1-0. Our men’s tennis team scored its first win over IU in nearly 10 years. Even our cross country team upset the nationally ranked Hoosiers last season in a duel meet.
A couple high-profile wins would be all it would take to prove that Indiana athletics have deteriorated (or, if you’re an optimist, that Ball State is out of its slump and back to a high-profile athletics school).
It would also be a jump-start to ditching the image of Ball State as a second-tier school. Sure, it’s not a win over Notre Dame, but it would be the school’s first win against a Big Ten school in football and a high-profile win in basketball.
And maybe, if it does nothing else, it will convince some of the people here at Ball State to stop wearing Indiana Hoosiers shirts around campus. It can happen.
There are photos of students here at Ball State storming the streets after our team made it to the Sweet 16. There are players who are proud to be from Ball State, chanting the name of the school, showing off their jerseys, or celebrating a title or big game won.
The problem is few people trekked up to Western Michigan to see the Ball State’s men’s basketball team end the Bronco’s home winning streak last season, few saw Ball State take the MAC title in men’s tennis. Few current students have seen Paris McCurdy take “the shot.”
And that’s why we need to beat IU.
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