Not that you didn't know, but Ball State University begins its football season tonight with a home game against the University of North Texas.
Last year was, for lack of a better word, magical. Despite the last two games of the season, in which the Cardinals were embarrassed, the Ball State community watched as one of the perennial punching bags of college football slowly climbed up the rankings each week and entered BCS talks for the first time ever.
It wouldn't qualify as magical, maybe not even acceptable, for a football powerhouse school. But it was the best the Ball State community had ever seen from a Cardinal football team.
That team may have had more of your support than any other team in school history. And they deserved it. They deserved more. This is a different team. It lost several key players from a year ago and has replaced them with young, inexperienced players. But it still has leaders and explosive players, like running back MiQuale Lewis who has the potential for an All-American season if the offensive line holds up.
This may be a rebuilding year. More than likely, an undefeated regular season is out of the question and a bowl game is questionable but a good possibility. Lewis will probably have another great year; quarterback Kelly Page may show the potential to fill at least one of former quarterback Nate Davis' shoes. But another nationally ranked season will probably have to wait a few years.
That doesn't mean the team doesn't deserve as much of your support as last year, or more. A few years ago we saw comparable youth and inexperience. That team grew into the team that bowled through its regular season opponents last year.
If you missed jumping on that bandwagon, no worries. This one will be here for a while before the team gets attention like it did last year. It is easy to show up and stay for an entire game when the team is ranked. Easy as it was, Ball State fans didn't do that last season until November.
Give this team the same support the powerhouses get from their students. This team has worked too hard for the student body to be fair-weather fans. Obviously the stands won't fit 70,000 or 80,000 people. But the sight of a half-full student section, so common in the past few years, would be unacceptable, especially with the game televised nationally on ESPNU. After the season last year's team gave us, we owe this team our presence at home games.
Show the team you want and deserve a football team - one that does well. Go to the game tonight and every other home game as long you're here.
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