The tension is building.
It started with the Navy game.
Ball State University football fans were on the edge of their bleacher seats when the team the Cardinals upset last year came to Muncie, and they weren't disappointed.
Then the Cardinals faced the Hoosiers in Bloomington. The tension built as Ball State lost a star player in Dante Love but still put away the win.
Homecoming against Kent State University followed. Fans were anxious about how the team would fare without Love, but again the Cardinals didn't disappoint.
Ball State won game after game, climbing ever higher in national rankings despite this week's dip in the BCS Standings.
On Wednesday that nervous excitement will come to a head at Central Michigan University as Ball State faces its toughest opponent of the season.
Are you ready?
The university is. Ball State and Student Government Association have made it possible for any student who has $10 and wants to go to the game to make it there.
They have committed to providing a seat on a bus, a discounted ticket to the game and a boxed meal from The Atrium to every student who reserves a spot today at the Student Life office.
The university will get however many buses are necessary to take all the fans who sign up.
Ball State is making it incredibly easy to support the football team in what has grown to one of the most highly anticipated games of the year.
The Chippewas will likely mount the toughest challenge of the season to the Cardinals' undefeated record.
A full cheering section of fans wearing red and white sure would be good motivation to Cardinals' players, who have likely felt the tension mounting from game to game even more than spectators.
Attention from national sportscasters has lately concerned Ball State's slim chances in Wednesday's game. Fans want the Cardinals to prove those predictions wrong.
Sports media attention has also been given to the Ball State fan base, and not for good reasons. At the game against Northern Illinois University, only about 14,000 people (about 4,000 fewer than average) came to Scheumann Stadium. The trend of many fans leaving before the end of the game hasn't gone unnoticed either.
Ball State football is nationally ranked. The team is undefeated in 10 games for the first time in school history.
If there was ever a football team for Ball State students to get excited about, it's this one.
The Cardinals have become in just a few seasons a team that has found success in a big way. Fans are ready for them to prove themselves on a national stage.
It's time for the fans to prove themselves, as well. All they have to do is get on the bus.
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