Ball State travels to Kent State. No market line yet; the model gives Kent State a 67% shot.
What’s at stake
Kent State
- Kent State went 1-23 across 2023-2024, fired Kenni Burns in April 2025, and turned to interim-then-permanent head coach Mark Carney -- who led a 5-7 turnaround with more wins in one season than the previous two combined, capped by reclaiming the Wagon Wheel from Akron in an overtime thriller.
Ball State
- Ball State hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent since 2020.
The series
Ball State leads the series 25-8
33 meetings since 1977 · Ball State has won the last 4
- 2025Ball State 17–13
- 2024Ball State 37–35
- 2023Ball State 34–3
- 2022Ball State 27–20
- 2019Kent State 41–38
Face-off
What each fanbase carries into this one.
Ball State
The chip · vs the national mediaBall State's title runs get treated as isolated upsets rather than a program with real periodic championship pedigree -- three decades, three different eras, the same result. Fans see a pattern the rest of the sport treats as a coincidence.
What this game touches
The long gaps between titles. 24 years passed between the 1996 and 2020 MAC titles. The program's identity is built on real championship pedigree, but also on long stretches of irrelevance in between -- 2025's 4-8 start under a new coach is the latest reminder of how far apart the good years can be.
Kent State
The chip · vs the national mediaKent State fans have watched the program get written off as a MAC afterthought during the 1-23 stretch -- and answered with a coach promoted from the same staff that presided over it, turning the roster around fast enough to reclaim the Wagon Wheel in overtime.
What this game touches
The 1-23 stretch under Kenni Burns. Kent State won a single game combined across the 2023 and 2024 seasons before Burns was fired in April 2025 -- one of the worst two-year stretches in modern MAC history, and the standard every Mark Carney win is measured against.
Best players
Kent State
- Mason Woods (LB) · 2025: 94 tackles
- Joel Cordoba (DB) · 2025: 66 tackles
- Dru Deshields (QB) · 2025: 2,030 passing yards
Ball State
- Alfred Chea (LB) · 2025: 59 tackles
- Nathan Voorhis (DE) · 2025: 49 tackles
- Joey Stemler (LB) · 2025: 44 tackles
Conditions
Kent State is 51% at home, 20% on the road since 2018 (19-18 home, 10-41 away).