Being the sports fanatic that I am, I try my hardest to catch SportsCenter at least once a day. Since ESPN usually runs that and the World Strongest Man contest coverage continuously throughout the day, I usually catch it.
One of the best parts of the show is the segment at the end of the show called "Did You Know?"
So, without further adieu, consider this my segment of "Did You Know?"
Did you know Connecticut has an identity problem?
This weekend Ball State traveled to UConn to face off in football, but the part that I found interesting was a logo painted on the Huskie's field. It's the logo of the Big East Conference. The really funny part is that they aren't even in the Big East Conference.
But hey, they did a good job fooling me. I wrote the preview story about Saturday's game and I referred to them as being in the Big East Conference. Don't blame me though. Let us review where I got this notion.
On the front of their media guide, a book full of stats and information about the team, there is a Big East Conference logo. And, in the front of the guide there is a section devoted completely to "The Big East Football Conference."
On the inside of the cover is Lew Perkins, the Director of Athletics, with a brief introductory letter. In the letter he says, "Our football team continues its steady march toward full Big East Football Conference membership." As far as I'm concerned, without doing any in-depth research on the team, that is the only place I find them admitting they aren't part of the conference.
Putting the Big East Conference logo everywhere would be like Ball State putting a Big Ten logo on our football field -- wrong, misleading and confusing.
Hey Lew, keep putting that logo on everything, and maybe they will let you in someday. Kissing up never really hurt anyone.
Anyway, back to Ball State football and the theme of this column.
Let me begin my next "Did You Know" with a quick knock on wood first (knock knock).
Did you know that if Ball State moves on and wins the MAC West Division, which lets be honest, is looking pretty likely at this point, the game will be played right here in Munciana?
That's right, beautiful Ball State Stadium will host the championship game. One problem though, it's going to be a little dark.
The game is set to begin at 6 p.m., and as of now, our stadium has no lights. Have no fear though. Did you know the MAC will be supplying us with lights?
According to Gary Richter, MAC Director of Media Relations, bringing lights to Muncie will cost the conference approximately $30,000, maybe more. But perhaps Richter had the right idea when he said jokingly, "lets get David Letterman to pay for it."
Along the lines of the MAC West Championship, did you know the MAC has a Web site, www.mac-sports.com? More importantly did you know they have a fan poll in the lower left-hand corner asking browsers to vote on who they think will win the MAC West Division football race? You should know, in fact, you should be outraged. Toledo leads the poll with 49.6 percent of the votes.
Give me a break, we beat Toledo. They don't get another chance at us. Essentially, it's over for them. Forget it Toledo, you're done.
We should at least have a better percentage than 25.4. I figured all of you who were moved enough to rush the field after the game against Toledo might be moved enough to log on and vote for who we all know will win the division. If you feel real moved, you can vote a second time if you go to www.bsudailynews.com and click on the sports link.
On that note, and just to be safe, I'll end this portion of the column, go back to the wood and (knock knock).
Now for what we'll call the "quick hit" portion of my "Did You Know" segment.
Let's see, did you know Ball State is No. 1 in the Mid-American Conference in kickoff returns and Corey Parchman is No. 8 in the nation averaging 29.67 yards a return?
Did you know that last year when Ball State faced Central Michigan, Ball State's opponent this Saturday, for the 17th time in school history, there were two rushers with 100-plus yards? Marcus Merriweather rushed for 257 yards while Talmadge Hill rushed for 101.
Did you know that Ball State's defense is No. 35 in the nation?
Did you know that the largest home crowd to attend a Ball State football game was against Toledo in 1997 and 1996 with 21,581? Did you know that against Toledo this year we were only 304 people short of breaking that record?
So what does all this mean? Nothing really.
But hey, it's always fun to play Stewart Scott. Booya!
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