ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- For a group of dedicated Ball State students, the location of the football team's bowl game destiny didn't matter to them.
When it was revealed Ball State was headed to the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, sophomore history major Erik Jones immediately looked on the internet for the cheapest way to get to St. Petersburg, Fla. But he wasn't coming up with anything in his price range.
"The second they announced it we immediately looked up prices," Jones said. "To get any flights its $600 roundtrip."
That's when Ball State announced its student package: round trip travel, hotel, game ticket and souvenirs for at most $300.
For Jones and his three friends, Jeremy Murtz, Tyler Noragon and Ryan Wiaranowski, the offer was too good to pass up. The group of them were the first four students to sign up for the package.
"We might not get another opportunity to do this, and the fact it's in St. Petersburg," Jones said. "It's a heck of a deal."
But the trip almost never happened. The school made a deadline of 36 students by Friday, Dec. 14 or the trip could be canceled. Two days before the deadline, only 20 students had signed up for the package.
The group was worried that the trip wouldn't reach its minimum, but a rush of students in the final days allowed the trip to still happen.
"We were kind of screwed if it fell through," Wiaranowski, a sophomore journalism graphics major said. "We really wanted to come. It was a once in a life time opportunity almost. It's not often a school gets to go to a bowl game."
The group of 40-some students left Muncie at 10 p.m. Tuesday and arrived at the Alden Beach Resort at 6 p.m. Wednesday after making a bus driver change, stopping to eat and getting caught up in traffic.
The bowl game isn't until Friday night, but in the meantime the group is spending time on the beach that's just steps from their hotel room and enjoy the bowl game events.
But even with the price and logistics of the bowl game, the group said they were disappointed at the number of students that signed up for the package.
"We should have five buses just of students coming to this," Jones said. "We got one bus and we had to struggle to get there. It's been upsetting for me that there's a real lack of support for the team when they're really darn good."
But the group of Jones, Wiaranowski, Noragon and Murtz aren't going to let the number of students in St. Petersburg ruin their time. They're making the trip one of the best experiences of their time in college.
