The Ball State Cardinals are the athletic teams that represent Ball State University, located in Muncie, Indiana. The Cardinals are part of the NCAA Division I

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great L ...

. Charlie Cardinal is the team mascot. The Ball State University Pride of Mid-America Marching Band performs at all home football games, many home basketball games, and various other athletic and spirit events across campus.

Nickname

Ball State athletics teams adopted the nickname Cardinals in 1927, after the name was suggested by then-athletic director Paul "Billy" Williams and voted upon by the student body. In years prior, the school's teams were known as the Hoosieroons.

Sports sponsored

A member of the West Division of the

(MAC), Ball State sponsors teams in seven men's and 12 women's

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

sanctioned sports. The men's volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.

Football

The Ball State Cardinals compete in Division I

Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

and the

. The current head coach is

Mike Neu Michael David Neu (born December 29, 1970) is an American football coach and former quarterback, who is the current head football coach of the Ball State Cardinals. He played college football at Ball State for Paul Schudel from 1990 to 1993 and ...

. The Cardinals play at

Scheumann Stadium Scheumann Stadium (officially, the "John B. and June M. Scheumann Stadium"), formerly known as Ball State Stadium, is in Muncie, Indiana. It is primarily used for football, and it is the home field of the Ball State University Cardinals. The ...

. On October 5, 2008, Ball State was ranked in the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

Top 25 poll for the first time in team history, and reached a ranking as high as 12th in the nation during the course of the season. Ball State completed the 2008 regular season with a record of 12–0 and a conference record of 8–0. They won the MAC West Division championship before falling to Buffalo in the MAC Championship at Ford Field in Detroit. Shortly after the departure of head coach

Brady Hoke Brady Patrick Hoke (; born November 3, 1958) is an American football coach in his second stint as the head coach at San Diego State University. He was previously the head coach at the University of Michigan from 2011 to 2014. Hoke grew up in O ...

, Ball State lost to the University of Tulsa in the GMAC Bowl on January 6, 2009 by a score of 45–13.

Bowl games

The Cardinals have gone to eight Division I bowl games. They have a 1–8 record in these games, with their last appearance being a 51-20 loss to Georgia State in the Camellia Bowl.

Women's basketball

The Ball State Cardinals' women's basketball team won their first MAC tournament in 2009 and subsequently went to their first-ever NCAA Tournament. In the first round, they beat the Tennessee Lady Volunteers 71–55 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. 12th-seeded Ball State's win over 5th-seeded Tennessee was the Lady Volunteers' first first-round loss in the 28-year history of the women's NCAA Tournament. The Cardinals earned a lot of attention for their historic first round win and briefly became the Cinderella, feel-good story of the NCAA Tournament before losing to the Iowa State Cyclones 57–71 in the second round. On March 21, 2012, head coach Kelly Packard resigned On May 12, 2012, Brady Sallee, the former coach at Eastern Illinois University, was named the eleventh head coach in the program's history.

Baseball

The Ball State baseball team plays in the MAC West Division. They play on

Ball Diamond Ball Diamond is a baseball venue located on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, United States. It is home to the Ball State Cardinals baseball team, a member of the Division I Mid-American Conference.Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

, in 1973 and 1975.

Fight song

The Ball State fight song was written by Carl Hofer in 1930.

References

External links

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