Central Michigan vs. Kent State prediction: Odds, picks, and best bet for Wednesday night ‘MACtion’

Two MAC teams at the end of encouraging seasons will meet on Wednesday night.

Central Michigan can keep its faint hopes of making it to the MAC Championship Game alive with a win over Kent State, but the Golden Flashes also have plenty to play for on Wednesday.

Kent State was left for dead before the season started, but it can still get to a bowl game with wins against Central Michigan and Northern Illinois to close out the campaign.

The Golden Flashes are 9.5-point underdogs in the friendly confines of Dix Stadium in beautiful Kent, Ohio, on Wednesday night.

Central Michigan vs. Kent State odds, prediction

It won’t get much love in the mainstream, but what is happening at Kent State this season is remarkable. Projected to be the worst team in the country after going a combined 1-23 in 2023 and 2024, the Golden Flashes were rocked in April when head coach Kenni Burns was fired with cause for violating his contract.

Mark Carney took over on an interim basis, but it didn’t take long for the school to take away that tag. Carney got the Golden Flashes to believe, winning four of their first 10 games. It may not sound like a big deal, but Kent State’s Over/Under for 2025 was 1.5 wins, so it’s some job that Carney has done with the Flashes.

The numbers are not that impressive, but what the Golden Flashes are doing is just hanging around in games long enough to turn them into coin flips. They were on the right side against Akron, Bowling Green, and Merrimack, and the wrong end against Ball State and Buffalo.

Betting on College Football?

Central Michigan will come into Kent with plenty of betting support. The Chippewas are the better team, they have more on the line, and they are in good form with three wins from their last four games. The problem is that the lopsided action for this game has caused this line to balloon, putting some value on Kent State.

The Golden Flashes should stick around in this one, and it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibilities that Central Michigan falls flat, like it did against Akron not too long ago.

The Play: Kent State +9.5 (-110, DraftKings)

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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.