The students marched to the lawn outside the president's office, united under a common bond to fight what they deemed an injustice.
Eight guards met them at the door, preventing them from entering the president's building. So they protested.
The group of about 70 students shouted their disdain for the administration. They demanded their voice be heard. They lifted signs reading, "We pay tuition."
But it was too late for students at the University of Auburn to make a difference. After 10 seasons, an 80-33 overall record and one bad 2008 campaign, their football coach, Tom Tuberville, was no longer head of the Tigers' program. Many believed he was forced out after only the second losing record in his 10-year stint. His mother said so herself.
A friend texted me Wednesday afternoon asking why Ball State students haven't done the same for Cardinals coach Brady Hoke. It took me a while to form an answer.
Ever since stepping onto this campus two years ago, I've had a major problem with the overwhelming apathy of our student body. I remember moments like last year's Central Michigan blowout when the student section was empty bleachers with an embarrassingly small cluster of fans.
This season is different.
The foundation of fan support was built in the second game of the year, when the student section was packed in the second half of Ball State's 35-23 win against Navy. Our excitement crescendoed every time the Cardinals drew 20,000-plus fans for home games. It climaxed in the final home game of the year when a school-record 11,088 students decided to cheer our Cardinals on in person instead of go home for Thanksgiving Break.
Even Ball State's blowout loss to University at Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference Championship Game failed to quash students' pride. With Ball State's men's basketball team struggling Tuesday against Purdue, students in The Nest had one question for the faithful who traveled from West Lafayette: "Where's your bowl bid?"
So why haven't we marched to the lawn of president Jo Ann Gora's office as she and athletics director Tom Collins fumble their "negotiations" with Hoke?
My fear is we've become so accustomed to a reactive philosophy that the chance to be heard has been missed. That mind-set trickles down from an athletics department that chooses to react to success instead of being proactive. Collins treated this season with disregard, as if it was a fluke. The approach has been unprofessional, and it begs the question of whether he's competent enough to hold his job.
The greatest example of his - and even Gora's - negligence is in Ball State's contract "negotiations" with Hoke.
With the unprecedented success Hoke led our football program to this fall, Collins and Gora should have rolled out the red carpet and asked him what he needed to continue the team's success past this season. That includes an increase in his base salary and his assistant coaches' salaries and a commitment to upgrade facilities. These are simple, generic requests for a coach as successful as Hoke.
Instead, the two-headed monster showed blatant disrespect by consistently delaying negotiations with Hoke. One of Ball State's most influential alumni, Jason Whitlock, said it wasn't until this week that Hoke received an offer of approximately $360,000 for next year. That offer left little funding for assistant coaches' salaries, Whitlock said. Athletics director Tom Collins neither confirmed nor denied the report.
If Hoke gets a significant offer from any other university - be it San Diego State, Auburn or whoever - he's gone. Auburn is the only school Hoke's talking to that he would accept if the university's attempt to keep him wasn't an utter joke. At this point, I can't blame him for leaving if he chooses to. The administration has given him no commitment.
Understand Hoke deserves more respect than Gora and Collins have given. If this season's success isn't enough - which it should be - the silver lining is that Hoke is part of the Cardinals' athletics family. He played football at Ball State. He graduated from the university along with his wife and daughter. He currently coaches his nephew, safety Kyle Hoke.
Hoke is Ball State. He's being pushed out by a president from the East Coast (Gora) and an athletics director who spent most of his professional life on the West Coast (Collins). Collins will say he's very interested in keeping Hoke at Ball State, but he'd have the "negotiations" wrapped up by now if that were true.
Collins' predecessor, Bubba Cunningham, had a vision for the Cardinals football program. He once said it should be the front porch of the university. It's the way to attract attention from outsiders, bring them into the home and brag about the positives this university can offer. Letting Hoke leave - no, indirectly asking him to leave - is an embarrassment.
You should be more than angry. You should realize you're the last hope to avoid a situation that will set the program back years. You should realize you have a powerful voice.
Don't waste it.
Start marching before it's too late.
Write to Ryan at rtwood@bsu.edu
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