Since this is the next to the last edition of the Ball State Daily News for this 2005-06 school year, we in the sports department decided to give the Cliffs Notes version of the five biggest sports news stories of the year.
With all due respect to the football team's Mid-American Conference-record five overtime victory against Western Michigan and the baseball team setting the school record for most runs, hits and RBIs against Valparaiso, we present our selections.
1. Textbook scandal
Sixty-four Ball State University athletes were found in violation of the NCAA's "extra benefit" rule concerning textbooks with fines totaling $9,137.05 in October.
"Every institution is responsible for creating an environment that's compliant, and if you have holes in that - which this is - then you're susceptible to evaluation by others," said Bubba Cunningham, former director of intercollegiate athletics. "We submitted what we've found to the conference office, we've submitted to the NCAA, so we've opened up everything for everyone to take a look at."
Forty-seven of the fined athletes were part of the football program including 10 who, at that time, were no longer with the team. The fines the university collected from the athletes were put back into the university budget instead of going to a charity of the player's choice, which was a deal that then-Athletics Director Cunningham made with the NCAA. Cunningham also decided that the athletes who served suspensions had to perform 10 or 20 hours of community service depending on individual violations.
2. New coaching era
In his first coaching change as athletic director, Tom Collins met with then-head coach Tim Buckley one week after the conclusion of the men's basketball season. Buckley went into the meeting as head coach, but came out of it as the newest member of University Development's staff. The decision was also made to release Buckley's three assistant coaches - Steve Lynch, Jay Bryant and Jamall Walker. On April 4, new coach Ronny Thompson was hired. This is the first head coaching job for Thompson, as he leaves the University of Arkansas where he was an assistant coach for three seasons.
"I think I have been looking forward to being a head coach since I was old enough to hold a remote control," Thompson said. "It's something that I've always known that I've wanted to do."
Currently, Thompson has hired two assistant coaches, Steve Flint from the College of Southern Idaho and Troy Collier from Missouri State University.
3. Peyton Stovall injury
Having just one torn ACL is bad enough, but Peyton Stovall suffered his second in as many seasons on the same knee with Ball State on Nov. 26, against the University of Dayton.
"I'd be lying to myself if I said I wasn't thinking about a re-injury," Stovall said. "Every night before I went to sleep, getting myself hurt would run through my mind at least 10 times before I actually went to sleep. It was running through my mind a lot."
Stovall was recovering from his first ACL injury and was back to leading the team, with preseason hopes of leading the Cardinals to the Mid-American Conference title. Stovall is still recovering and doing rehabilitation work to strengthen his knee.
4. Athletic director decisions
Cunningham announced Oct. 10 he would be leaving Ball State to become the new athletics director for the University of Tulsa. He officially left Ball State one month later. Ball State President Jo Ann Gora then named Ken Brown as the interim athletics director for the university while a search took place for a new one. After two months and nine interviewed candidates, Tom Collins, formerly the senior associate athletic director at Arizona State University, was named to the position on Dec. 3, in Indianapolis and started the position on Jan. 9.
"Ball State has everything that I want," Collins said. "It's a wonderful academic institution. I think you have all the right resources here with the APR. I'm looking forward to advance all the missions we have here at Ball State University."
5. Tom Howland incident
Tuesday, Feb. 21, Tom Howland was involved in a dispute outside of The Giant Locker Room in the Village. At the time, Howland was a center on the men's basketball team. Howland was beaten with a tire iron by Anthony J. Rowland, who was later arrested on suspicion of aggravated battery, according to police reports. Rowland and Drew E. Hyman, son of Associate Dean for Student Affairs Randy Hyman, were both taken to Delaware County Jail where Hyman was released on bond and Rowland served Wednesday night in jail. Howland was treated at Ball Memorial Hospital later that night and was removed from the basketball team by Buckley the next night after playing just ten minutes.
"It was not just this one situation that led to this decision," Buckley said. "The team comes first and the team has to be the most important thing. Basically, Tom made the decision himself."
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