Ohio State's national-title hangover starts with the softest possible landing spot: a MAC team that won 4 games a year ago.
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Best BetOhio State
Ohio State returns a Heisman-caliber quarterback and a roster loaded with newcomers against a Ball State team that won 4 games last year and ranked near the bottom of FBS in points allowed. This is about as safe a moneyline play as the sport offers in Week 1, and there's no scenario built on current form where the Cardinals pull the upset.
Ball State
+Uremovich has a full offseason with his system now
+Nothing to lose, no pressure playing a true road dog
−Went 4-8 in 2025, defense ranked 103rd nationally
−Massive talent gap against a top-tier Big Ten roster
Ohio State
+Returns Sayin off a 32-TD, 8-INT sophomore breakout
+12-0 regular season in 2025, loaded roster depth
−51 newcomers means real early-season cohesion questions
−Coming off a first-round playoff exit that exposed late-game issues
This is about as lopsided a season opener as college football offers. Ohio State enters 2026 off a 12-0 regular season and a program-record 51 newcomers folded into a roster that's still chasing another championship after a first-round playoff exit to Miami last December. Ball State is coming off a 4-8 season in Mike Uremovich's debut year, one where the Cardinals scored under 16 points a game and gave up nearly 30. There's no version of this Saturday, September 5 opener where Ball State is favored, and Ohio State fans should treat it as a chance to see the new-look Buckeyes work out the kinks before the schedule turns brutal.
Julian Sayin returns as the unquestioned starter after a 2025 that saw him complete 77% of his passes for 3,610 yards and 32 touchdowns against just 8 interceptions. Ryan Day has publicly raised the bar on him for this season, pushing Sayin to take command of the offense at a higher level under new coordinator Arthur Smith. A game like this against Ball State's rebuilding defense is exactly the low-risk environment to let a young quarterback settle in before Texas, Oregon and the rest of Ohio State's gauntlet arrive later in the year.
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OSU Ohio State
Ball State's side of this is about survival, not the scoreboard. Uremovich took over a program that had been treading water and inherited a defense that ranked 103rd nationally in points allowed last season. A trip to Columbus to open his second year isn't a measuring-stick game so much as a paycheck game — the kind every MAC program schedules to fund the athletic department, with the actual goal being to get out healthy before conference play against Toledo, Northwestern and the rest of the MAC slate.
The bigger storyline in Columbus is whether this Ohio State team can avoid the trap that bit them last postseason. Going 12-0 and still getting bounced by Miami in the first round of the playoff left a mark, and Day has talked openly about needing to win games in the fourth quarter this year rather than coasting on talent. A tune-up like this won't answer that question, but it's the first data point in a season where the margin for error against the sport's best teams will be a whole lot thinner than it is against Ball State.
Jeremiah Smith and Ohio State's skill talent should have every opportunity to pile up numbers early against a MAC secondary that struggled all of last season, and expect Day to use this one to get depth pieces run as the newcomers work into the rotation. For Ball State, the goal is simpler: avoid the kind of blowout that saps momentum before their home opener against Stony Brook the following week.
