Ball State Gives Up On Football, Lets Hoke Walk

I'm so very disappointed in my alma mater today.

As wonderful, incredible, amazing as the 2008 football season was to watch Ball State rise as high as 12th in the polls - almost assuredly as high as they will ever go - it is just as disheartening to see that Ball State's leadership has absolutely no intention of keeping it going, or even attempting to.

Brady Hoke, the coach and architect of the 12-0 start, bolted BSU for San Diego State over the weekend. It is, at best, a lateral football move and is probably more like a downgrade. Hoke's salary will be more than twice what it was at BSU, so he has that going for him. But all reports are he would've stayed if Ball State had done one simple thing...give his assistants the raises they deserved.

The offer on the table for Hoke was 390,000 dollars a year (SDSU will be paying him 700k a year for 5 years). But when Hoke asked president Jo Ann Gora about raises for his assistants - you know, like Stan Parrish, who's only one of five finalists for the national asst. coach of the year award, or Mark Smith, who, as much as he was shredded by people like me the last few years, actually put together a pretty solid defense this year - Gora said no.

That was it. Hoke was gone. A Ball State alum. A great guy. Exactly the kind of person Ball State should have representing their football program and their university. Done.

This was the equivalent of Notre Dame saying thanks but no thanks to Frank Leahy after the four straight undefeated seasons in the late 1940s. Florida dumping Steve Spurrier after he won the 1996 national championship. Nebraska chasing out Tom Osborne after his back to back titles in the mid-1990s. Simply a humiliating day.

Ball State should be ashamed of itself. They could get a new coach who's better. I really doubt it. This university has shown no aptitude for achieving anything in athletics. Ronny Thompson saga, firing the women's volleyball coach after his 1st losing season out of EIGHTEEN, pick your humiliating move. This school, for all its talk of achieving, seems to have no desire to achieve what would give us the most publicity.

One-Line Bowl Breakdowns

EagleBank Bowl - Navy vs Wake Forest:
Triple option and the home field in DC? Advantage Middies.

New Mexico Bowl - Colorado St vs Fresno St:
Anytime, anywhere for FSU coach Pat Hill means Albuquerque this year.

magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl - Memphis vs South Florida:
Not exactly where USF wanted to be playing a 'home' game this bowl season.

Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl - BYU vs Arizona:
Chance for the Cats to make a name for themselves by winning the first bowl with a ranked team.

R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl - Southern Mississippi vs Troy:
Ten bucks if you can name one player on either of these teams without looking.

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl - Boise St vs TCU:
After Ball State's loss, this is now the "not in a BCS bowl" national championship game.

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl - Hawaii vs Notre Dame:
This is what ND's reduced itself to - a bowl game off the mainland on Christmas Eve.

Motor City Bowl - Florida Atlantic vs Central Michigan:
CMU in Detroit for the 3rd year in a row in a real yawner of a matchup.

Meineke Car Care Bowl - West Virginia vs North Carolina:
I remember when bowl games at least used to have a real name after the sponsor's name.

Champs Sports Bowl - Wisconsin vs Florida St:
Wisconsin almost lost to a I-AA team - FSU was almost ranked at the end of the season.

Emerald Bowl - California vs Miami:
I thought this bowl was in Seattle (Emerald City) for a couple of years. Nope - it's Emerald Nuts.

Independence Bowl - Northern Illinois vs Louisiana Tech:
6-6 MAC teams should never, ever, ever get a bowl bid.

Papajohns.com Bowl - NC St vs Rutgers:
Rutgers started the year 1-5 and I'm impressed with their in-season turnaround.

Valero Alamo Bowl - Missouri vs Northwestern:
Both these teams should be in better bowls but got passed up for more name teams.

Roady's Humanitarian Bowl - Maryland vs Nevada:
I can't imagine any scenario in which a fan of either school would go to Boise for this.

Texas Bowl - Rice vs Western Michigan:
I'm guessing few new subscribers to the NFL Network earmark this one as the reason.

Pacific Life Holiday Bowl - Oklahoma St vs Oregon:
First bowl of the year with two ranked teams, and this should be a very good one.

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl - Houston vs Air Force:
Gotta think this bowl jumped at the chance to get an academy, given the name.

Brut Sun Bowl - Oregon St vs Pittsburgh:
It's a long way from Pasadena to El Paso for OSU. And from Miami to El Paso for Pitt.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl - Boston College vs Vanderbilt:
There are many bowls with essentially a home team this season, and this one might be the oddest.

Insight Bowl - Kansas vs Minnesota:
Minnesota has no right to be in a bowl despite their 7-5 record. This should be a massacre.

Chick-fil-A Bowl - LSU vs Georgia Tech:
The Jackets might be the best team no one is talking about right now - they ended up BCS-eligible.

Outback Bowl - South Carolina vs Iowa:
Pretty good matchup of under-the-radar teams from the SEC and Big Ten.

Capital One Bowl - Georgia vs Michigan St:
The annual matchup of 'teams that look good until you realize that they beat no one who matters.'

Konica Minolta Gator Bowl - Clemson vs Nebraska:
Gotta give Dabo Swinney credit for getting the Tigers here.

AT&T Cotton Bowl - Ole Miss vs Texas Tech:
A tremendous job by Houston Nutt to get the Rebs here, but their prize is a beatdown loss, assumedly.

AutoZone Liberty Bowl - Kentucky vs East Carolina:
Why is this bowl on Jan. 2nd? Answer me that. The spate of post-New Year's crappy bowls annoys me.

International Bowl - Connecticut vs Buffalo:
See what I mean? This one's on Jan. 3rd. Toronto thrilled to get two nearby teams.

GMAC Bowl - Tulsa vs Ball St:
BSU might have ended up here regardless of their MAC title game defeat.

Rose Bowl - Penn St vs USC:
Is anyone going to take PSU in this game?

FedEx Orange Bowl - Virginia Tech vs Cincinnati:
The Orange locking itself into the ACC champ is why there's never a good Orange Bowl matchup.

Allstate Sugar Bowl - Alabama vs Utah:
This might be the best bowl matchup besides the national title game.

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl - Texas vs Ohio St:
A 3rd straight BCS humiliation for the Buckeyes as Texas takes out their Big 12 snub on them.

FedEx National Championship Game - Florida vs Oklahoma:
The last good matchup in the national title game was three years ago. This one might end that streak.