Ready or not, college football is back in full swing next week.
Ball State is coming off back-to-back bowl games — something it achieved just two other times in program history — and went 6-7 (4-4 Mid-American Conference) last season.
Coming off a year with high expectations after winning its first outright MAC Championship since 1996 and first bowl game in program history in 2020, last year's campaign ended in a 51-20 loss against Georgia State in the Camellia Bowl on Christmas Day.
The Cardinals enter this season picked to finish last in the MAC West Division in the conference preseason media poll and have plenty of doubters after graduating more than two dozen seniors who helped turn the program around under now-seventh-year head coach Mike Neu.