Circle City Cardinals? A modest scheduling proposal for Ball State football

Unlike many MAC schools, Ball State has never hosted an HBCU in the regular season. Their lone game against an HBCU came in the 1965 Grantland Rice Bowl against Tennessee State. However, there could be a unique potential opening to change that after recent developments in the Black College Football world.

The Circle City Classic at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, a decades-long institution of the HBCU football calendar, has made the decision to pivot from hosting HBCU football to local high school football and collegiate basketball due to a variety of factors.

The news is unfortunate– but also indicative of the financial ecosystem of college football. The Circle City Classic was Black College Football at its finest. Beginning with a game hosting a Jerry Rice and Willie Totten-led Mississippi Valley State team in 1984, the classic was a staple of the Black College Football calendar for over four decades. The game drew crowds of over 40,000+ well into the 2000s.

The Classic fell on tough times in the 2010s as college athletic financial trends changed. Years of dwindling attendance and relevance culminated in last year's game, which went untelevised/streamed and had an attendance of 3,000. Luckily, there could be a substitute nearly an hour away.

Now, no one will mistake Muncie, Indiana for Indianapolis, but Ball State’s location lends itself well as a de facto Circle City Classic replacement.

Muncie is closer to the mid-sized cities of Columbus, Fort Wayne, and Dayton than Indianapolis is. A Ball State home game against an HBCU could better serve those cities than the Circle City Classic did. This would add to the existing fans from Indianapolis left without an HBCU classic. For Ball State, this would arguably be a better way to connect with the Indianapolis market than past failed attempts at hosting Indiana at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Furthermore, an HBCU opponent could have more appeal than other distant FCS opponents. HBCUs bring their well-known marching bands to these road games, even incentivizing HBCU schools to travel for a game by paying additional money for the band. Although Black College Football has a rich tradition and level of play that extends beyond the bands, the bands remain a significant attraction for fans.

Last year, Scheumann Stadium was less than half-full for the Cardinals’ game against Northeastern FCS power New Hampshire. In the last decade or so, Ball State has hosted Stony Brook, Colgate, Central Connecticut State, Virginia Military Institute, and Fordham. None of those programs has the national appeal that many HBCUs have. Taking a bold approach could be in BSU's favor.

There is also incentive on the HBCU side; over the offseason, the SWAC made the decision to eliminate games against non-NCAA members and reduce games against Division II programs where possible. That leaves a number of openings which could provide opportunities for additional pay games– something which would be an immediate aid for a lot of programs in the SWAC and other HBCU conferences.

In years when Ball State does not host a local FCS school, the Cardinals should at least look at filling the void left by the Circle City Classic and host an HBCU. The program would have nothing to lose relative to hosting a northeastern FCS school, given the poor attendance of those games.

If the concept proves successful enough, Ball State could hypothetically move such a game to Lucas Oil Stadium. The Cardinals typically draw around 9,000 to 11,000 fans to 22,500-seat Scheumann Stadium for intersectional FCS games. Even local FCS schools do not draw great crowds for Ball State; longtime in-state rival Indiana State drew 15,054 for the schools’ first meeting since 2014 and fourth since 1991.

Realistically, Ball State does not have to command a high asking price from a local promoter for the game to be profitable for the program. After all, whatever Lucas Oil Stadium fatigue that accompanied the Cardinals’ 2019 game with Indiana should be gone after seven-plus years.

Also, Ball State may have to wait a few seasons to schedule an HBCU. The Cardinals’ next schedule opening is in 2028, and they already have Indiana State on the schedule as an FCS opponent– though they do have three openings in 2029.

It is not every day that an HBCU classic can potentially impact MAC schedules, but Ball State could make its intersectional games more exciting for the region after the Circle City Classic’s decline and celebrate the amazing culture of college football in one fell swoop.