"I still can't believe it. I can't believe they choked."
"Come on, it wasn't their fault. You think they could play well after just finding out their own athletics department didn't think they could win in Boise?"
"I don't care. It wasn't the athletics department's fault that we had four fumbles."
"Well we would've been ahead if the officials had counted that freaking touchdown."
That was a popular conversation after the Ball State University football team's loss on Friday to the University at Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game.
Today, the conversation sounds more like this:
"I almost would've rather gone to the Motor City Bowl. At least that's closer for fans."
"No, the GMAC Bowl is definitely better. I'd always take a warm-weather bowl over a cold one."
"Yeah, and playing Tulsa should be a great matchup. They're a 10-win team, but we'll still be favored."
These conversations are filling the hallways of campus buildings and the online comment boards of local media outlets.
My, how things have changed.
A few seasons ago, fan turnout at football games was dismal. Students often would stumble in the stadium gates after tailgating and stumble out at halftime.
A Ball State game never would have been broadcast on national TV. Fans never would have filled local sports bars to capacity.
But this year, Cardinal success has sparked something in fans.
They've transcended more than attendance records. The excitement has spread beyond Scheumann Stadium.
For years, Ball State sports have floated through the background of most students' college experience. This year's football program, though, has burned the kind of edge-of-your-seat memories of big sports schools into many students' minds.
Whether fans are livid or satisfied with Ball State's bowl bid, whether they are distraught or supportive after dreams of the perfect season were crushed, they are undoubtedly passionate about Ball State football.
This kind of jittery interest hasn't been seen on campus since the basketball programs of the 1990s.
But it's the kind of passion that keeps sports fans loving losing teams for decades. It's the kind that keeps families huddled under blankets in snow-covered bleachers.
It's the kind that college students will reminisce about for the rest of their lives and pass on to their children.
Chirp loudly, fans, to celebrate the return of passion to Ball State sports, because it doesn't come around that often.
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