Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils at Sacramento State Hornets
Sat Sep 5 · 9:00 PM CT
By Pablo SanchezUpdated 9d ago·2 min read
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Sacramento State steps into a brand-new era Saturday night, and the schedule-makers didn't exactly hand the Hornets a gauntlet to start it.
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Best BetSacramento State
Sacramento State is the easy lean here even with all the new-era uncertainty — they're making a calculated jump to FBS and picked a soft opponent to do it against. Mississippi Valley State is a 2-10 team from a season ago replacing its head coach and dealing with roster turnover of its own, which is a tough combination to overcome on the road. Back the Hornets to handle business at home in program history's first FBS game.
Mississippi Valley State
+fresh start under new HC Terrell Buckley
+nothing to lose vs a level-up opponent
−finished 2-10, 6th in SWAC East in 2025
−grueling road-heavy start to the schedule
Sacramento State
+chose a manageable opponent for historic FBS debut
+home crowd for program's first FBS game
−lost key players (McGlothen, Watts) to other programs
−brand-new staff with thin depth and no FBS reps
This one is about stakes more than styles. Sacramento State is playing its first-ever FBS game after 33 years in the FCS, jumping into the Mid-American Conference under first-year head coach Alonzo Carter. Mississippi Valley State, meanwhile, is walking into Hornet Stadium off a 2-10 season and a first-year staff of its own under Terrell Buckley. Neither program enters this September 5 opener with much continuity, but only one of them is trying to prove it belongs a level up.
The roster questions on both sides are real. Sacramento State lost its best pass rusher, Jayland McGlothen, to San Jose State, plus 320-pound run-stuffer DeSean Watts to Washington, leaving Carter to piece together a starting 22 with the margins already thin. Mississippi Valley State has its own rebuild underway after finishing 6th in the SWAC East and sitting out the postseason due to APR issues — a program-wide reset, not just a coaching change.
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MVSU Mississippi Valley State
SAC Sacramento State
There's also the size-of-jump factor. Sac State chose a soft landing spot for this transition — no Power Four teams anywhere on the 2026 slate — and a cross-country trip against a 2-10 SWAC team that's replacing its head coach is about as gentle an FBS welcome as it gets. MVSU, for its part, is opening the year with a brutal travel slate of its own, starting at Nicholls before this cross-country flight to Sacramento.
Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Sacramento State Hornets
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils
Sacramento State Hornets
Aug 29?@ Eastern Michigan—
Recent form.
For the Hornets, this is as much about establishing an identity as it is about the final score. Carter needs his new-look roster to show it can execute in front of a home crowd for the first time as an FBS program, and a manageable Week 1 opponent is exactly the type of test a rebuilding staff wants before conference play heats up. For Mississippi Valley State, it's about not embarrassing themselves against a team playing up a level — building on whatever went right in a rough 2025 rather than getting run off the field on the road.
Neither roster has had a full offseason under its new staff play meaningful snaps together yet, so expect some early-season sloppiness regardless of who's favored. But the gap in program trajectory is the story here — one team is trying to validate a historic jump, the other is trying to find its footing after a lost season.
