clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Governor Andrew Cuomo's ban keeps Buffalo from playing in Indiana, what's next?

Governor Andrew Cuomo takes a stand against Indiana's SB 101, and will have an effect on the MAC.

Bryan Thomas/Getty Images

On Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo put a ban on non-essential state travel to Indiana.

"Today, I direct all agencies, departments, boards and commissions to immediately review all requests for state funded or state sponsored travel to the State of Indiana and to bar any such publicly funded travel that is not essential to the enforcement of state law or public health and safety. The ban on publicly funded travel shall take effect immediately," the governor said in a statement. (WIVB.com)

These travels include, well, The University of New York at Buffalo Bulls games that are scheduled to play at schools in Indiana. Unfortunately, Ball State Cardinals teams will have to suffer.

There is supposed to be a women's tennis match in Muncie today between the two schools, but Ball State has announced yesterday that the game was officially cancelled and would not be rescheduled. Buffalo's press release on this includes that they were unable to find a neutral site. But it wasn't just tennis. Ball State was also scheduled to play host to Buffalo in softball over the weekend, but the series was canceled for being unable to find a venue to play at outside of the state. You'd also notice that UB's release also talks about the Governor's stance, which is the only reason this match was cancelled.

"We're still trying to figure something out," Hernandez said. "We are all hopeful the state of Indiana or the state of New York will solve this problem ... It's more up to the government at this point than us." (The Star Press)

The Ball State Daily, Ball State's student newspaper, reports that the National Forensic Association joined the list of companies to pull their events from being held in Indiana over the RFRA. The NFA's national competition in 2016 has also been pulled from Ball State, and has now re-opened bidding for other institutions.

And by now, you should already know that the MAC has announced that they would not be hosting any future championships or events in Indiana, "until this current matter is brought to a sensible and appropriate solution."

It's hardly been a week since the news out of Indiana broke and Ball State Athletics and other organizations have been affected instantly. And what can be frustrating about all of this is exactly what Mr. Hernandez told The Star Press, that there's too much going on that's just simply out of Ball State's hands.

With how quickly all of this news has come out, it's hard to not wonder if and when the next big decision to prevent more MAC events from happening in Indiana to do further damage to Ball State University.