College Football on DraftKings & FanDuel – Core Plays & Cheat Sheet – 12/2/2023

It’s conference championship Saturday for today’s slate! Are you looking for a quick, consolidated list of options for college fantasy football? Take a look at our CFB Core Plays & Cheat Sheets to help navigate today’s slate!

Core Plays

Jordan Maiva – QB, UNLV

Salary: $6,800 DK, $8,800 FD

The salary-adjusted value here is quite different on both sites because Maiva is among the highest salary quarterbacks on FanDuel, while he falls in the low-to-mid-range tier on DraftKings. On tomorrow afternoon’s DraftKings slate, the UNLV quarterback sits at a salary quite a bit lower than other quarterbacks, particularly those in high-profile championship games like Alabama QB Jalen Milroe, Georgia QB Carson Beck, and Texas QB Quinn Ewers, who are the three highest-salary options at the position tomorrow afternoon.

The prowess and profile of a game tells us little about a player’s fantasy upside. A leading indicator, however, of fantasy potential for an offense overall is a game’s betting market implied metrics, including team totals. From that perspective, UNLV is among the best teams on the slate. While they are a slight underdog in their Mountain West Championship matchup with Boise State, this game has the highest overall game total on the Saturday afternoon slate in betting markets. Supporting this is the fact that Boise State’s defense has struggled against the pass this year, ranking 115th in passing yards against among FBS teams for the 2023 season.

Simply put, the salary here is just too soft for the context — specifically that UNLV’s passing offense is expected to have considerable output Saturday, which translate to favorable median and upside expectation for quarterback Jordan Maiva. The UNLV Rebels passing offense is worthwhile to target on the early slate.

CJ Baxter – Texas, RB

Salary: $5,600 DK, $7,800 FD

Freshman running back CJ Baxter is set to lead the Longhorn’s backfield in the Big 12 Championship Saturday as he returns from a hip injury which limited him last week and continues to fill in for starter Jonathon Brooks who is out for the season.

The Longhorns are expected to be a significant favorite (based on betting market expectations) Saturday afternoon in a game that has one of the highest game totals on the slate. The Longhorns have found considerable success in the run game all season. Baxter rushed for more than 100 yards en route to a 21 DraftKings fantasy point performance when he led the Texas backfield week 12 against Iowa State.

As the freshman occupies the top role in the Texas backfield Saturday, he should be an excellent point-per-dollar value option at what is a modest salary relative to the running back salaries on this slate.

Ricky White – WR, UNLV

Salary: $6,700 DK, $10,400 FD

While WR Ricky White is expected to be the highest-salary active pass catcher on Saturday’s slate on DraftKings (assuming Brock Bowers does not play), his salary is still relatively modest in relation to the  salary constraint for the slate as well as relative to his median projection.

As mentioned in my quarterback write-up regarding Jordan Maiva, the UNLV passing game is a favorable option for Saturday afternoon’s slate. Stacking Maiva with his top receiver is a straightforward, favorable way to target this opportunity.

White has amassed more than 100 receiving yards in each of the Rebels’ last five games, averaging 148.2 receiving yards per game over that span. This has translated to considerable fantasy output, as White is averaging an astounding 31.04 DraftKings fantasy points over the last five weeks.

The UNLV Rebels are my preferred stacking option for Saturday’s slate and Ricky White is the preferred top pass-catching option to include in a Rebels stack. His substantial median expectation is simply hard to find elsewhere at wide receiver on Saturday.

Cheat Sheet

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