Bowl game appears could build market school nationally

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Although Ball State didn’t win the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl against Central Florida on Dec. 21, the game didn’t result in a negative bowl week experience for the program.

“It was an incredible experience for everybody involved,” athletic director Bill Scholl said following the game. “Obviously you’d like to win the game, but everybody associated with the bowl was first-class.”

The team arrived in St. Petersburg on Dec. 16 and up until gameday participated in several bowl festivities, including a welcome party, a beach bash and a team dinner on a boat.

The team captains also visited the St. Petersburg All Children’s Hospital the day before the bowl game.

“I’d be hard pressed to believe there’s not a more professional, customer-service oriented detailed staff than here,” coach Pete Lembo said. “From A-to-Z they had it all covered.”

Coming from Notre Dame, Scholl has been to multiple bowl games in the past. He passed along his knowledge of bowl games and knowing what to expect to Lembo, who was making his first bowl game appearance.

But after two seasons at Ball State and already playing in a bowl game, Scholl understands that Lembo knows how to run a football team and how he’s built the football team for the future.

“It’s going to continue to get better and better,” Scholl said. “I think the beauty of what coach Lembo and his staff have done is that they’ve put a program in place. This isn’t done with a couple of kids he inherited. Every decision he makes is a long-term decision.”

But with the football season over, the athletic department transitions to the winter and spring sports. Scholl saidit will be a challenge improving those teams because it will be his first time going through those seasons at Ball State.

“It’s the first time through for me,” Scholl said. “Right now, I feel like I have a great handle on our fall sports. Now I’m trying to develop that same kind of sense to our winter and spring programs.”

Along with the bowl game itself, Scholl was also impressed with the number of Ball State fans that traveled to Tropicana Field for the game. The stadium was heavily favored for Central Florida, but the Ball State crowd wasn’t drowned out.

Scholl said he hoped the crowd that made the trip to St. Petersburg will help draw larger crowds at Scheumann Stadium and for the other sports at Ball State.

“What we need to do is grow [the fan base],” he said. “Hopefully if we get some of the passion from the people that made this trip and grow that in Muncie so when you walk out of the home game you go, ‘Wow. We had a big crowd today.’”

The bowl experience obviously would have been better for Ball State had it claimed its first bowl win. But both Lembo and Scholl are confident there will be more bowl games for the school in the future.

“The student athletes had an incredible time, [and] the administration, [and] the donors did,” Scholl said. “This is as good as it gets.“