A BCS dream for the Hoosiers

Imagine the IU football team arriving at the Indianapolis International Airport, back from New Orleans. The players, clad in heavy crimson clothing appropriate for the cold weather, one by one make their way through the tarmac as thousands of faithful Hoosier fans greet them with camera phones in hand, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new national champions.\nIU coach Bill Lynch emerges as the last man off the plane. Donning a No. 13 jersey, in honor of Coach Hep’s mantra, he raises the spectacular AFCA Coaches’ National Championship Trophy while specs of light, via flashbulbs, bounce off of it as if it were heaven sent.\nNow back in Bloomington, you’re still on the emotional high from a night unlike one the city has ever seen. You struggled to make it out of bed, groggy and removed from your usual routine. You have three brand new back-to-back classes staring you in the face and all you can think about was that play where Kellen Lewis broke down that safety on a 60-yard run, or the shoestring interception by Tracy Porter that sealed the deal. But you are faithful, so you make your way from the south side of campus just to be a part of the scene.\nThen it happens.\nA caravan of buses makes its way down Dunn Street, and the mob of people who were lighting couches on fire a few hours before in the Varsity Villas reconvene for even more celebration in the stadium parking lot. The marching band plays “Indiana, Our Indiana” and screams from hoarse voice boxes belt out “I-U” as the players make their way into a sea of red, soaking in the school’s first BCS National Championship.\nI imagine this is probably a semi-accurate depiction of what happened on LSU’s campus yesterday morning after they welcomed back the Bayou Bengals from their beat-down of Ohio State in the BCS National Championship Game. From a fan’s perspective, the thrill of winning a football championship seems to far outweigh a title in any other college sport. \nIU is inarguably a basketball school, but watching LSU’s celebration after the game Monday night made me want to experience the pride they felt that night. Obviously the expectations are much higher from big-time programs like LSU and Ohio State, but a long time ago they had to build their programs up from conference bottom feeders – much like IU has been accustomed to in recent years.\nI hope that at one point in my life I am able to see the Hoosiers return from winning something with as much magnitude as Monday’s championship game. As a senior in my last semester, I have seen it all – the good and the bad of IU sports – but never the legendary. After watching countless teams raise trophies on ESPN all of my life, I have come to the conclusion that there would be no better feeling for a college sports fan than having your team in a BCS bowl and taking home the crown.\nThis might seem a little obvious, but the progress the Hoosiers made this season did wonders in changing the attitudes of many hopeless IU football fans, myself included. And it made me honestly believe that one day a similar event \ncan happen right here in Bloomington.