BEYOND VARSITY: Why is Ball State playing another FCS opponent?

The Ball State football team's game Saturday against Liberty doesn't count.

Kind of.

"Each year, a Football Bowl Subdivision institution may count one victory against a Football Championship Subdivision opponent."

That's from Rule 18.7.2.2.1 of the NCAA bylaws. Ball State already defeated Southeast Missouri State, so a win Saturday against Liberty could not be used toward the six wins the Cardinals need to be bowl eligible.

I know it's looking too far ahead to be worried about Ball State's bowl chances when the team is coming off a 2-10 season and a sloppy win to start 2010, but I'd like to at least keep the hope alive.

Last season, Kansas State finished 6-6 but was not bowl eligible after it played two FCS games. A 6-6 record for Ball State this season is an optimistic, but conceivable, goal. It would be extremely frustrating to see the same thing happen to the Cardinals as the Wildcats.

Athletics director Tom Collins said it can be difficult to build a nonconference schedule, which led to the Cardinals' playing two FCS teams.

"Sometimes it ends up being a jigsaw puzzle," he said. "That's just one of those things. Hopefully, [getting to six wins] won't be an issue for us. Hopefully, we'll win plenty more."

Ball State is not alone in scheduling two FCS teams this year. Arizona State, Virginia, Syracuse and San Jose State are in the same boat. Seven teams played two FCS opponents in 2009.

Arizona State was left out in the cold when San Jose State broke their $250,000 contract to make nearly double with a $450,000 contract for a game against Wisconsin, which will be played this weekend.

Plus, it's not as if the Cardinals have had the best luck against FCS schools. North Dakota State and New Hampshire have beaten Ball State in the past four years.

Liberty, ranked No. 18 in the FCS coaches' poll, is no gimme either. The three-time defending Big South champions put up 452 passing and 599 total yards in a win Saturday against St. Francis. Ball State coach Stan Parrish called Mike Brown the best quarterback the Cardinals would play this season. Ball State's passing defense, which was largely untested by Southeast Missouri State, will have to fend off an aerial attack that put up three touchdown passes for 40 yards or more last week.

Collins said he wants to make sure Ball State can have six home games each year, and scheduling two FCS teams turned out to be the way to do that for 2010.

"It's been a little bit of a challenge because we've got some existing contracts that are on the books that we've got to work around, and most of them are road games," he said.

I can understand where Collins is coming from. I'm sure it's hard to convince teams to come to Muncie.

But when I take a step back and look at it, I just keep referring to this game as an exhibition. It elicits those thoughts of watching the NFL preseason over the past month. The game result doesn't really matter, so why should I care?

Maybe an exhibition game is just what we need, though. There were several question marks after the first game. A contest where the final score isn't as important as the development of Kelly Page, the secondary or the game plan heading into two tough games against Purdue and Iowa could be really helpful.

So maybe all of this was intentional. Collins said the most important things to him were having the team ready for the Boilermakers and the Hawkeyes and getting the nonconference schedule finished before MAC play.

In the end, though, I'm really disappointed that Saturday's game is sort of irrelevant, even if the Cardinals win.