MUNCIE, Ind. — Mike Neu is sitting down with a Ball State football helmet on, feeling like a kid who can’t wait to get up on Christmas to see what presents rest underneath the tree.
It’s Friday, the day of the Mid-American Conference’s anticipated decision on reversing course and playing football this fall. It’s an emotional moment, one happening not long after the MAC announced it would hold a six-game, conference-only season that starts Nov. 4 — with a championship game in December. And there is BSU’s head coach on a Zoom call with all the players who could make it, his video not yet started and his microphone on mute, ready to energize a group that had been told in August it wouldn’t play until the spring.