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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2026-04-22 15:46:52+00:00.

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

With one exception, get ready for a steady diet of MAC and CUSA teams for the rest of the month of April. Next up is Ball State (high = 126, low = 134), who are coming off a 4-8 season in 2025 but haven’t won a non-MAC FBS game since beating UConn in 2022 and haven’t won a non-MAC game away from Muncie since going bowling in the 2020 COVID season. Head coach Mike Uremovich enters his 2nd season as the head Cardinal after taking over for the fired Mike Neu, and none of the preseason polls appears ready to anoint this as a likely resurrection story.

Roster Outlook

When most of your preseason talent rankings are in the triple digits nationally, it’s not a healthy sign for a promising season. The Cardinals rank 123rd in the country in returning production, including 136th (3rd from the bottom) on defense and a high water mark of 89th on offense. Couple that with 247 high school recruiting rankings of 111th in the country, a portal class of 108th and an overall incoming class of 113th, and you start to understand why they’re picked to finish only ahead of UMass in the MAC (and yes, that includes Sacramento State). To be fair, those rankings do qualify for 8th, 2nd and 9th in the conference, so things may not be completely hopeless. Starting on defense (since that’s the weak spot), DBs Derek Fields and Willizhuan Yates both are back, the latter of whom had on INT. That’s… pretty much it in terms of anybody meaningful who contributed on that side of the ball. The Cardinals bring in 7 P4 defensive transfers to look to rebuild there (2 from Cincinnati, plus one each from Louisville, Pitt, Ohio State, Wake Forest and Purdue). Starting QB Kiael Kelly is gone, but they brought in former Texas State/SMU transfer Keldric Luster to presumably take over. Starting RB Qua Ashley portalled out to nowhere yet, but the Cardinals brought in Kansas RB Johnny Thompson. They also lose leading WR Qian Magwood to eligibility and Eric Weatherley and Ty Robinson to the portal (the latter of whom landed at Illinois), but return #2 receiver Donovan Hamilton and 3 G6 transfers.

Schedule and outlook

9/5 at Ohio State

9/12 STONYBROOK

9/19 at Liberty

9/26 at Kent State

10/3 TOLEDO

10/10 at Northwestern

10/17 at Bowling Green

10/24 SACRAMENTO STATE

10/31 BYE

11/4 at UMass

11/11 BUFFALO

11/17 at Ohio

11/28 CENTRAL MICHIGAN

With only 5 home games in 2026, it’s going to be tough for Ball State fans to generate much enthusiasm this season. Traveling to Liberty as a likely 1-1 team, that game against the Flames will likely be the litmus test for how this season goes. If they can manage to get their first non-MAC actual road win since 2016, then with games against UMass, Kent State, Sacramento State and Buffalo (spoiler alert, you’ll be seeing write ups for all of them by Mother’s Day) the Cardinals could manage to finish with a respectable record. But that’s probably a tall order for Uremovich in year 2, and without a sign of promise or David Letterman making it rain in NIL opportunities, it might require a different Cardinal to work some miracles here.