Ranking Iowa's 2014 football games: No. 12 Ball State

This is a 12-to-1 countdown of Iowa's most-appealing football games this season. No. 1 is the most-appealing. We'll start with No. 12.

Sept. 6 — Ball State:

That's right. An opponent that won 10 games last season is in the least-anticipated Iowa game of this season.

That has nothing to do with the history between the two programs, which is Iowa with two wins and 101 points, Ball State with zero wins and zero points.

They met four years ago at Kinnick Stadium. If I'd had a countdown that year, Ball State would have been No. 11. But that's only because the Hawkeyes opened with Eastern Illinois.

Ball State had a beautiful season in 2013. It pounded Army, 40-14. It won at Virginia, 48-27. It was 7-1 in the Mid-American Conference, a year after it was 6-2.

On top of that, the Cardinals have won their last two games against Big Ten opponents. Both came against Indiana, in 2011 and 2012. It's become a good program.

Keith Wenning was BSU's quarterback last year, and he was very good. Very, very good. He had 35 touchdowns to just seven interceptions, and threw for 4,148 yards. Wenning was picked by the Baltimore Ravens in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. It isn't clear who will take his place.

Whoever it is, it will be someone who hasn't played against 60,000 fans or a defense like Iowa's.

Ball State does get a tune-up before going to Iowa. On Aug. 30, the Cardinals should be able to give Colgate the brush. Get it? Colgate is the name of a toothpaste brand. It's a play on words!

Look, I know MAC teams have won at Kinnick in each of the last two seasons. It was Central Michigan 32, Iowa 31 in 2012, and Northern Illinois 30, Iowa 27 last year. But the most-recent Iowa-MAC game was last Sept. 21, when the Hawkeyes walloped Western Michigan, 59-3.

Ball State isn't a marquee name and doesn't have a marquee player. It's a better team than two, maybe three, even four teams on Iowa's schedule. This could very well be a competitive game, but this list is about the at doesn't make it compelling right now.

I know Ball State fans will take offense at this, just like Missouri State fans did last summer when I said Missouri State-Iowa was the least-interesting game on Iowa's 2013 schedule. In hindsight, I was wrong. Gee whiz, Western Michigan.

USA TODAY's Paul Myerberg says Ball State's Pete Lembo is the best college coach outside the major conferences. He ranks Ball State No. 57 among the 128 FBS teams. What, is everybody doing countdowns these days?