Eastern Michigan vs Sacramento State Prediction Football Picks Today 8/29/26

The Sacramento State Hornets and the Eastern Michigan Eagles meet Saturday in college football action from Rynearson Stadium in Ypsilanti. Here’s an Eastern Michigan vs Sacramento State prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Eastern Michigan vs Sacramento State pick.

Sacramento State Hornets Betting Preview

The 2025 season was a bit of a weird one for the Hornets. It was the first and only season for head coach Brennan Marion, and since then there’s been a complete reboot of the coaching staff. In any case, Sacramento State still managed a winning record, going 7-5 overall with a 5-3 run in the Big Sky Conference. That result would leave the team in fourth place among the standings behind Montana State, Montana and UC Davis. The Hornets limped out of the gate with losses in their first two games and went just 2-3 over their first five. Sacramento State would hit a 5-1 run in October/November, then lost the Causeway Classic finale versus UC Davis back on November 22.

This year Sacramento State moves to the Mid-American Conference, and that won’t be the only change. Head coach Alonzo Carter takes over the helm for the team’s first year in the FBS after 33 years in the FCS. He’ll have the luxury of returning QB Carson Conklin, who has the capability of guiding the team to another winning season.

Eastern Michigan Eagles Betting Preview

Over on the Eastern Michigan side, they had a decidedly more disappointing campaign in 2025. The Eagles limped to a 4-8 run overall with a 3-5 mark in the Mid-American Conference. That result would send Eastern Michigan near the bottom of the standings, ahead of only Ball State, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois and UMass. Eastern Michigan won just one of their first six games, but to be fair four of those losses came on the road. A 3-2 stretch came later in the season, then a finale loss to Western Michigan on November 25 to finish things off.

Looking ahead to 2026, the Eagles have a good opportunity to bounce back from their 4-8 run a season ago. Eastern Michigan will retain head coach Chris Creighton for his 13th season, and he’ll have fifth-year senior Noah Kim back behind center. It’s the first time since 2017 that the Eagles retain their starting QB. Kim will have a couple of interesting transfers behind him in running backs Malachi James (Syracuse) and Braydon Bennett (Virginia Tech).

Sacramento State Hornets @ Eastern Michigan Eagles Betting Trends: Week 1

Eastern Michigan Eagles Player Prop Facts

• Noah Kim ranked 6th amongst qualified players for sack percentage (2.7%) last season.

Sacramento State Hornets Player Prop Facts

• Ellijah Washington ranked 3rd in the Pac-12 Conference for kick return yards (182) last season.

Matchup/League Facts

• Eastern Michigan ranked 136th among FBS teams for rushing yards allowed per game last season (232.1).
• Eastern Michigan ranked 3rd among FBS teams for red zone percentage last season (94.6).

Eastern Michigan vs Sacramento State Prediction

I’ll lean toward taking a stab on Eastern Michigan. It’ll be interesting to see what the Eagles are working with these days. Granted, the ceiling isn’t super high but the team could find themselves bowl eligible if all goes well. That would be a huge turnaround from an ugly year. In order to pull it off, EMU has to fix their struggling run defense. The good news is that they return six starters on that side of the ball. The offense looks promising as well; if there’s some early chemistry we should see a big improvement.

As for Sac State, their offense will immediately be putting the Eagles to the test with what should be a good mix of run and pass. The Hornets don’t have a ton of experience on the field this year however, and the offensive line is something of a question mark.