I'm aware these games are scheduled far in advance, but even the dumbest person at the MAC office or ESPN could predict Kent was going to be absolutely terrible this year, and these morons put them on national TV in a MACtion slot. As soon as a casual observer sees 0-8 next to Kent State's name on the screen they're going to immediately change the channel, with an occasional flip back to check the score.
In November, just about all MAC games are in national TV MACtion slots. The only Saturday game left before Thanksgiving is BG-BSU on the 23rd. Kent has to play somebody, somewhere, sometime. After us, they have MOFO and Akron(!) set for a regular ESPN channel or CBSSN, then Buffalo on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving probably on ESPN+ (only one MAC slot on ESPN that night and the other game is Toledo-Akron). Most of the better matchups were played in September and October when it's warmer and people are more likely to show up. Unless Kent plays all Saturday games in November (not easy to do, given that their opponents would play midweek games) they have to play some midweek games.