CFB: Thurs/Fri - College Football Scratchpad

QB - Deshaun Watson $9,300 - Pretty much the only guy I am playing on this slate at QB. All the other guys have too many question marks or bad matchups in my opinion.  Mike Bercovici $9,500 is the next best option but he is $200 more.

RB - Dalvin Cook $8,900 - The guy carried the ball 30 times for 266 yards and 3 touchdowns last week.  Hard to imagine him not having a big game this week.

RB - Wayne Gallman $6,700 - I like pairing QBs with RBs in College and Watson and Gallman are a great combo that people might sway away from because no one likes taking a QB and RB from the same team.

RB - Demario Richard $7,800 - Arizona State has a great matchup on Friday night against New Mexico that have given up 150+ rushing yards in each of their first two games. He is a nice alternative to Dalvin Cook and saves you $1,100.

RB - Cheap guys would be Jon Hilliman $5,400 or Jhurell Pressley $5,500 but not greatest matchups but great salary relief if you spend up at WR.

WR - DJ Foster $7,600 - He can do it all with his running ability and now increased volume in catching. He was a RB last year and switched him to WR. He is the star on the offense.

WR - Charone Peake $5,800 - I like stacking Clemson in this game as much as possible. Peake is a big upgrade now that top WR Mike Williams got dinged up. Good price and must play.

WR - Artavis Scott $6,800 - Maybe the better option for Clemson WRs but you will have to pay an extra $1,000 to go Scott over Peake. A lot of people could be taking the salary relief and over valuing Peake's big game last week.

WR - Dameon Gamblin $4,500 - Super cheap but does have a tough matchup against Arizona State and is a huge underdog in the game. Might work in his favor though and could be targeted a lot in the 2nd half. He had 8/131/1 statline last week so $4,500 is almost a lock.

Other WR options - Travis Rudolph $6700 is very expensive and has been up and down in the Florida State offense. His teammate Jesus Wilson $4,900 makes for a nice cheap option.

TE - Micky Crum $3,500 or Kody Kohl $2,900 - Crum looks like the guy at TE that will see the most targets tonight but I think Kohl at $600 less is a great option as well and offers some stability at the QB position.

Other TE - Jordan Leggett $2,600 - Just another piece of the Clemson offense you can pair with Watson and he comes at a nice price and could be lesser owned than Crum or Kohl.

Follow @JamesBrimacombe

CFB Week 2 Recap: Pac-12 Conference

College football is alive and well on FanDuel and with two weeks already in the books here is a breakdown of the Pac-12 conference as it is one of the top conferences in the entire NCAA.

Head on over to Footballguys.com for a full recap of the entire Week 2 games in the Pac-12 Conference and for all your College Football DFS coverage. Below is the Utah Utes breakdown for Week 2 but over on the website you can check out the entire 12 team Pac-12 recap.  CFB Week 2 Recap: Pac-12 Conference

UTAH STATE 14 AT UTAH 24

Key Player Performance - Travis Wilson was knocked out of the game in the second quarter after suffering a left shoulder injury. Before the injury Wilson completed 9 of 12 passes for 76 yards and rushed for 49 more yards while adding a rushing touchdown. Kendal Thompson stepped in for Wilson and finished the game with 56 passing yards on 8 of 10 passing and added 23 more yards to go a long with a touchdown on the ground. Losing Wilson hurts for the Utes but at the same time the team has confidence in Thompson as he proved it last year against UCLA. Running back Devontae Booker had 31 carries for 120 yards rushing and a touchdown in the game. He continues to get a high volume of touches as he also caught 2 passes for 13 yards and now with Wilson likely set to miss a game or two he will continue to see 30+ touches moving forward. Kenneth Scott had another letdown performance as he only caught 2 passes for 18 yards.

Key Injuries - Quarterback Travis Wilson was knocked out of Friday Night's game with a shoulder issue to his non-throwing arm. It is unknown how long Wilson will be sidelined but it is looking like he will miss at least one or two games. Coach Kyle Whittingham's press conference on Monday he stated that both Wilson and DE Hunter Dimick "are not done for the season," We don't expect them to be lost for the season. If they are, we will make that known." The injury to Hunter Dimick is a big loss for the Utes as he is one of their premier pass rushers and a key leader on defense. Reports out of Utah are saying Wilson will likely sit this week against Fresno State and Kendal Thompson will get the start but the Utes will push for Wilson to be ready the following week against Oregon.

Key Under the Radar Players to Watch - Wide Receiver Britain Covey continues to lead the Utes receiving core as he had a team high 6 catches for 61 yards. He will remain an intriguing fantasy option especially in full PPR formats moving forward.

Follow @JamesBrimacombe

FanDuel CFB Interactive Value Chart

It's football season!

The college DFS slate kicks off tomorrow. FanDuel's Thursday night contests are now open for business, and they've also released their player salaries for Saturday's early game slate.

The FanDuel CFB Interactive Value Chart (subscriber-only) is also open for business.

Like all the interactive value charts, it will be updated periodically with new projections. Our college projections are done by Devin Knotts, and the Week 1 pricing at FanDuel appears to be pretty loose. That means there are a lot of good values available. In NFL contests, very loose pricing is not advantageous because it makes it too easy for even novices to find good values. But college football is different. It's much harder for the common fan to be knowledgeable about all the teams on a given slate, so we expect many good values to go unrecognized and unexploited by many DFS players. If that turns out to be the case, the loose pricing increases the expected return for the rest of us.

Good luck this weekend!

College Football First Takes (Thursday 9/3 Game Slate)

Marquise Williams QB - North Carolina

Earlier in the week we saw FanDuel release their first taste of CFB DFS action for 2015.  They put out 6 different GPP contests, ranging from $1 to $100 and also added 2 Qualifiers for the CFB Playboy Mansion ($200 and $25 buy-ins). The first few weeks in the CFB season are the ones that can be to your advantage if you are willing to put in the research and find both the value and strongest plays of the week. With FanDuel opening up the season with a 9 game slate for college football it is never too early to start on giving out advice and below I will give you my early take on what players to target.

GAMES                                         VEGAS ODDS
Western Kentucky vs Vanderbilt              -1.5/66.0
North Carolina vs South Carolina             -2.5/64.0
TCU vs Minnesota                                  -14.0/57.5
Ohio vs Idaho                                           +9.0/54.0
Oklahoma State vs Central Michigan    +21.5/54.0 
TX San Antonio vs Arizona                   -31.0/52.5
Duke vs Tulane                                         -9.5/47.5
FIU vs UCF                                             -17.0/46.5
Michigan vs Utah                                      -5.5/46.0

Some quick notes to get us started here while looking at the game slate and the odds associated with them. The first thing I like to look for are the high totals and for this Thursday we have the first two games with game totals over 64.0 total points and even better both of these have a point spread that are under 3 points so we have to feel good about those games putting up a lot of points with both offenses in a back to back type of game. These type of high scoring games usually tend to favor the passing game and this is where you should look for your QB and WR's.

Oklahoma State being favored by -21.5 points and Arizona by -31.0 points makes those games look very lopsided but in college football that is not always a bad thing. Scoring points helps your team in the polls and even in the 4th quarter when your team is up by 3 or 4 touchdowns it is still very likely that your starters will be on the field trying to make plays and find the endzone. I usually like to target teams Running Backs in games that have a higher point spread.

The games that come in under a 50.0 over/under total on Vegas are the games that you want to be careful with and pick and choose players here sparingly. If you are playing in GPPs and want to be contrarian picking players from these type of games would set you apart from the pack.

Now onto a few notable picks at each position for this Thursday game slate.

STRONG vs VALUE PLAYS
Strong Play: QB Marquise Williams $10,100  - North Carolina
Value Play:  QB Thomas Sirk $5,100 - Duke
     Cheaper Options: Travis Wilson $7,500, Cooper Rush $6,500

Strong Play: RB Devontae Booker $9,300 - Utah
Strong Play: RB Leon Allen $9,000 - Western Kentucky
Value Play:  RB Aaron Green $8,300 - TCU
Value Play:  RB Rodrick Williams Jr. $6,000 - Minnesota
     Cheaper Options: William Stanback $7,600, Elijhaa Penny $6,500

Strong Play: WR Josh Doctson $8,300 - TCU
Strong Play: WR Taywan Taylor $6,500 - Western Kentucky
Value Play:  WR Dezmon Epps $5,900 - Idaho
Value Play:  WR Kenneth Scott $5,900 - Utah
Value Play:  WR Kolby Listenbee $5,900 - TCU
     Cheaper Options: Ryan Switzer $5,500, Mack Hollins $5,200, Antwane Grant $5,200

Strong Play: TE Jonnu Smith $4,000 - FIU
Value Play:  TE Deon Watson $3,400 - Idaho
     Cheaper Options: Jerell Adams $2,700

For any CFB, NFL, or DFS questions please feel free to ask me over at Twitter @JamesBrimacombe

College Football Season Is Open

FanDuel released their first one-week fantasy college football contests for 2015 this afternoon. Currently posted is the Thursday slate and that includes the following games:

• UNC @ SOCAR Thu 6pm EDT
• FLINT @ UCF Thu 6pm EDT
• OKST @ CMU Thu 7pm EDT
• WKU @ VANDB Thu 8pm EDT
• MICH @ UTAH Thu 8:30pm EDT
• TCU @ MINN Thu 9pm EDT
• OHIO @ IDAHO Thu 9pm EDT
• DUKE @ TLANE Thu 9:30pm EDT
• UTSA @ ARZNA Thu 10pm EDT

As for the GPPs, leading the way is the Thu CFB Hail Mary. It’s just $25 to enter and awards $100,000 in prizes with $10,000 to 1st Place.

For users looking to get their feet wet, there’s also a $2 entry fee tournament with $20,000 in total prizes and a 1st Place prize of $2,000.

Check out both of those contests, plus the rest of the offerings here.

The Saturday slate, which is most often features the largest college football contests should be posted as we get closer to the season. But for college football fans, these Thursday contests are sure to get the juices flowing.

Be on the lookout for a wealth of college football advice, including full projections, at Footballguys this season too!

DFS College Football is Coming!

Utah Utes RB Devontae Booker

DFS College Football has been growing at a tremendous pace and heading into the 2015 season, we at Footballguys are excited to start bringing our subscribers weekly content for the sport.  CFB differs from the NFL game in real life and in the DFS world. I want to share a few tips and suggestions on how to build a successful DFS CFB team each week and what to look for in the process. Information and statistics are the big key in constructing a lineup and once you can learn how to collect the data you are going to be much more likely to dip your toes in the College DFS game.  I remember my first time playing College DFS, I was initially overwhelmed by the amount of teams and players and I remember thinking that I knew very little about the game and did not know where to even start with putting a team together. Once I overcame that initial fear and just played the game I realized there were many advantages of College DFS and it instantly became one of my favorite sports to play in the DFS world. A lot of the big players in the College DFS business have referenced it as "Fantasy Football on Steroids", and until you play the game for yourself you can't fully understand that statement.

Get ready to put in the time each week and follow along with the Footballguys DFS CFB team to get the weekly information that you need to put you ahead of the competition. I wanted to list some tips and suggestions on how I became a better CFB player as last year I finished the year inside the top 50 ranked players over at Rotogrinders and go by the screen name Eaglezzz.

TOP 13 TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR DFS CFB NEWBIES:

1. No Kickers or Defense on both FanDuel and DraftKings

2. The TE position can be a total crapshoot each week. You either pay up for a top TE or take a gamble on a minimum salary guy.

3. When selecting a QB you have a lot more options then NFL as there are more teams and more QB's that can be dual threats on the ground and through the air. Don't be afraid to spend on QB and get one that can do it all for his team.

4. Bigger game slates and a wider variety of Vegas Odds with huge over/under's and wider point spreads. 

5. Small school players are lesser known and it is much easier in College DFS to find value plays and sleepers that might be over looked by your competition.

6. QB/WR Combo's are similar to NFL but can have even a bigger impact on the outcome of your fantasy team as in college the QB can lock onto their favorite WR more frequently and multi touchdown games are what will separate your team from your competitors.

7. Finding injury news is much different in college then it is in NFL. Where to find this information and how to use it to your advantage when creating a lineup. You will find more late scratches in College as injury news often gets less reported over social media and is much harder to track down.

8. Vegas point spreads are an even better basis to build a team around in the College game but also that is the same idea that a lot of your competitors are using and some of the mid level Vegas point spreads and totals go over looked and the more you dive into the numbers you can find some very good alternative plays in those areas without maximizing your risk.

9. Read, listen, learn, study as much new information as you can each and every week as the amount of fantasy College information online is only a sliver of what you can find in the NFL. 

10. If you play Cash games make sure to post your games early and tweak them later. This can be a huge advantage as some may miss out on injury news, weather updates, scratches, depth chart moves, suspensions, etc.

11. Explore the "Early Game Slates" to the "Late Game Slates". Also there are a lot of different types of game slates throughout the season (Tuesday/Wednesday or Thursday/Friday). These are often great times to enter and accumulate tickets for the games on the weekend or future contests. Often those short slate contests have a ton of overlay and there is value to be had. 

12. With the College game being on Saturday for the most part it gives you an option to play some of your bankroll and try to increase it for the NFL games on Sunday. I used this technique throughout last season and it paid off in a big way. 

13. If you are going to play college DFS make sure to play from the beginning in Week 1. It allows you to follow the players and teams that much better and be a little bit ahead of the curve on lineup construction. Also in the early Week's (Week 1 - 6) your competition is just learning and getting their feet wet so you can use that to your advantage.

For any CFB, NFL, or DFS questions please feel free to ask me over at Twitter @JamesBrimacombe