This weekend, the Ball State Fighting Football Fighting Cardinals faced Notre Dame. Several associates were excited to make the trip to South Bend from various parts of the country.

I, meanwhile, was excited to make the trip to a bar in Fort Worth to watch with fellow Ball State alumni.

That clip from Letterman was during my freshman year at Ball State, when the Fighting Football Fighting Cardinals were in the middle of division one’s longest losing streak. They wouldn’t, in fact, win a game until my sophomore year.

That year, they beat Miami of Ohio. I suspect this was the only time anyone pulled down the goal posts to celebrate a win against Miami of Ohio.

Talmadge Hill was Ball State’s starting quarterback. He was at a noticeable disadvantage, though, given that he was also working as a stop on the Metro North.

Back in the day, Muncie and Ball State changed the rules for tailgating. Ball State, you see, was in danger of getting kicked out of Division 1A because its attendance was too low.

They had to change the rules for tailgating because some people [I don’t mean to call anyone out, but Alan Scaia was among them] would enjoy the day at tailgate parties and never, technically, go into the stadium. So now, you have to leave the parking lots 15 minutes before the game starts or they come get ya.

I know what you’re thinking: Come on Scaia, you’re trying to tell me Miami of Ohio isn’t a draw!?

An aside: I went looking for a picture of my associates outside the football stadium back in the day, but I couldn’t find one because we rarely attended games. That’s why the “featured image” is a picture I took when I went back to visit last year. The guy who lived across the hall freshman year and I went back [completely sober, mind you] to see the old dorm. We didn’t think a trip to the football stadium was important. We DID think it was important to show up outside our old dorm that was being torn down.

But, listen, everything worked out for the best. Ball State expanded Scheumann Stadium, which, apparently, had a name even when I was there [the fellow Ball State grad at the bar kept calling it by name. I had to look it up to see what he was talking about], and now attendance is acceptable. Sure, Scheumann Stadium isn’t, like, McKinney ISD stadium nice, but at least it’s big enough.

It feels strange that I now pay more attention to Ball State football than when I was a student. The Fighting Football Fighting Cardinals have shown up on national TV a few times, and each time I’ll gather associates who don’t care about Ball State Football even a little bit to watch the game. It’s possible these summits end with no one, not even the Ball State graduate, paying attention to the Ball State game.

At the conference this weekend, we discussed how Ball State shows up on big schools’ schedules each year. A couple years ago, Ball State played at Texas A&M. A fellow reporter at KRLD tried to get all the alumni in town to go [he got the appropriate amount of enthusiasm: zero people were interested in making the two hour drive].

I had been under the impression the big schools sign a deal where a li’l bitty school goes to them three or four years, and then the big school goes to the small school once. Turns out, Notre Dame just cut Ball State a check for $1.1 million. I know Ball State is the smaller program, but listen, Muncie is a lovely community. They’ll even welcome the Irish.

Quick note to Notre Dame: I’d have been willing to show up and lose by 35 points for half what you paid Ball State. Ball State did cover the spread.

Back to the summit in Fort Worth. This event had only Ball State graduates in attendance! So we left at half-time. Which seems like the appropriate amount of enthusiasm.

I met some non-Ball State associates at a second location, though, and right when the Fighting Football Fighting Cardinals were about to score near the end of the game, they got flagged for illegal touching. I loudly declared and texted just about everyone I know, “I couldn’t tell you how many women have flagged me for illegal touching. Must be a Ball State thing.”

Feel free to use that one, gang.