One season after a 24-23 loss to Indiana University at Scheumann Stadium, the Ball State University football team will get another chance at the Hoosiers in 2007. However, this time it will be in Bloomington on Nov. 3.
Indiana is one of five non-conference games for the Cardinals this year. According to the contract signed by both schools, the Hoosiers and the Cardinals were supposed to square off in 2008 and 2011. However, at Indiana's request, it asked Ball State to move the 2011 game to the 2007 season.
"They made a specific request for this year," Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins said. "They asked us to move up ,and we wanted to help accommodate their request."
The Cardinals will play four of their five non-conference games on the road. Ball State will play at the United States Naval Academy and the University of Nebraska on Sept. 15 and Sept. 22, respectively. Following two Mid-American Conference games, the Cardinals will play host to Western Kentucky University on Oct. 13.
On Oct. 27, Ball State will travel to Champaign, Ill., to take on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"We worked very hard to try to get another home game," Collins said. "That was something I wasn't able to accomplish."
Illinois is a "one-time game," Collins said, so the Fighting Illini won't make a trip to Scheumann Stadium. The Cardinals were originally scheduled to play West Virginia University as well. However, Western Michigan University will play the Mountaineers instead.
Like last season, Ball State will open with a conference home game. This time, the opponent will be Miami University, who will break in the newly renovated Scheumann Stadium.
Ball State will have one national television appearance. Ball State will host Toledo on Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
"I think that's going to be terrific," Collins said. "We played them real well up there last year and beat them [at Toledo] for the first time since 1991. Hopefully, we're playing for all the marbles and [coach] Brady [Hoke] has got them where he wants them."
Because of scheduling conflicts with a multitude of Mid-American Conference teams, some teams will play seven conference games and some will play eight.
Five of the six West Division teams - the University of Toledo being the exception - will play seven league games. In the East Division, everyone but Miami plays eight conference games.
However, each Mid-American Conference will play a full schedule within its division. Its division record, as opposed to the overall conference record, will determine the division champs.
"It'd be great if everyone had a balanced schedule, but I know the situation happened before when they kind of had these unbalanced schedules," Collins said. "There were some scheduling quirks that came up with the league and everyone worked as hard as they could. In the future, there's no question that we have to get back to the eight league games."
The MAC East Division opponents for Ball State are Miami and the University at Buffalo. In 2006, the Cardinals went 3-0 against the division, beating Buffalo, Miami and Kent State University.
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