This article is part of our DFS College Football series.
We've reached the end of the 2024 college football season. It's been quite the ride. Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois early in the year. Ohio State lost to Michigan, leading nearly every fan of the program to call for Ryan Day's job. Now, these two teams square off for the national title Monday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.
With only one game on the slate, both DraftKings and FanDuel have single-game-style contests. This means different things depending on the site you are playing at. Here's a quick rundown for both.
DraftKings: You have $50,000 in salary for six players. One is your Captain, who earns you 1.5 times the points, but with an elevated salary. DraftKings allows you to select kickers for your lineups.
FanDuel: You have $60,000 for five players. One is your MVP who earns you 1.5 times the points, but the MVP does not carry an elevated salary. Also, on FanDuel, you cannot select kickers.
While you have more salary for fewer players on FanDuel than on DraftKings, the salary allotments for both sites are different. To illustrate, Will Howard is the highest-salaried player on both sites. His FanDuel salary is $16,000, and his DraftKings salary is $11,800.
What about injuries? The only player among those you can select for your DFS rosters dealing with any sort of injury is Notre Dame receiver Beaux Collins, who is questionable with a calf injury he suffered in the semifinals. On the year he had 37 catches for 458 yards and three touchdowns. The injuries that will impact this game the most come to defensive players and offensive linemen. However, Ohio State's offensive line issues happened weeks ago, and the team has adjusted. The same holds true for Notre Dame's secondary after its best defensive back, Benjamin Morrison, went down for the year. It's Notre Dame who has the recent injuries that could impact things. The Irish lost defensive tackle Rylie Mills in the first round of the playoffs, and then in the semifinals saw left tackle Anthonie Knapp go down with an injury that will keep him out of the title game.
Alright, with all that sorted, it's time to look at the options for your DFS lineups, which I will take position group by position group. Okay, so I'll skip the kickers, though if you do want a kicker on DraftKings, I'd go with Mitch Jeter ($4,400) who is 7-for-8 on field goals in the playoffs and kicks for the team more likely to have to settle for field goals of these two. Jeter's salary is also lower than Jayden Fielding's ($4,800)
CFB Tools
- FanDuel Lineup Optimizer
- Matchups Page (Vegas odds, opponent averages, etc.)
- Advanced Lineups Page
- Stats
- Team Trends
- Targets
- Defense vs. Position
- Team Rankings
College Football National Championship DFS Picks for DraftKings and FanDuel
Quarterback
I want the aforementioned Will Howard ($16,000 FD, $11,800 DK) in my lineups, but I would eschew Riley Leonard ($15,500 FD, $11,400 DK). Both of these teams have excellent defenses, but Ohio State's is the best in the country. That's what SP+ says, not to mention the eye test and the postseason numbers. The Buckeyes' pass rusher, led by Jack Sawyer, could make things tough on Leonard, who is a strong scrambler but has averaged 7.0 yards per attempt and isn't even to 20 passing touchdowns on the season yet.
Quarterbacks touch the ball on effectively every single offensive snap, though, and thus have the opportunity to generate numbers unlike any other player. This could be a low-scoring game, but I think the Buckeyes win, and if it is not a low-scoring game, Howard will likely have a good night. He totaled four touchdowns against Iowa's defense and threw for over 300 yards with three touchdowns against Oregon in the playoffs. I wouldn't want to miss out on a big game from a quarterback in the title game when it comes to my DFS rosters. Howard is worth considering for your MVP on FanDuel, but I would not want to have to roster him at an elevated salary as my Captain on DraftKings.
Running Back
Jeremiyah Love ($11,500 FD, $9,000 DK) is the running back with the highest salary on DraftKings, but not on FanDuel. There, it's TreVeyon Henderson ($13,000 FD, $8,600 DK). I definitely don't want to roster Love on DraftKings, as a result, and am lukewarm over at FanDuel as well. Love has been playing through a knee injury, and on the year the Buckeyes have allowed a mere 89.9 rushing yards per game. The Fighting Irish, on the other hand, have allowed 133.0 rushing yards per contest, and don't have Mills. Between Henderson and Quinshon Judkins ($10,000 FD, $8,200 DK), Henderson is the big-play back. That 75-yard touchdown catch against Texas in the semis speaks to that, and he averaged 7.3 yards per carry.
Henderson is the back I want to roster the most, and I would heavily consider him for both Captain and MVP. If you are trying to save salary, the only real option is Jadarian Price ($8,000 FD, $5,600 DK). He's the. He's the only back I have yet to mention who sees any playing time, and he did averaged 6.3 yards per carry and score seven touchdowns this season.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Since I have mentioned tight end, I'll start by saying I definitely like the idea of having Notre Dame's tight end Mitchell Evans ($7,500 FD, $3,000 DK) on my rosters. While he had five catches for 58 yards against Penn State, he was targeted nine times. Four times since Week 8 against Georgia Tech he has had at least four receptions. Leonard may need to use the tight end as a relief valve or as a target in the end zone. At these salaries, he's nice to slot into a lineup.
I am not rostering Jeremiah Smith ($13,500 FD, $10,800 DK), the highest-salaried non-quarterback on both sites. The true freshman is remarkably talented, and I don't think he had only one catch for three yards in the semis because he's a fraud. It was because Texas focused on stopping Smith and Chip Kelly was happy to work around that and take advantage of the opportunity that emerged from that plan. If this were the regular season, Kelly and the Buckeyes would still try to get Smith the ball to keep the star receiver happy. This is about winning a title, though.
Thus, I like Emeka Egbuka ($10,500 FD, $7,800 DK) as much as any player in the title game. Through 15 games he has 103 targets for 75 catches, 947 yards, and 10 touchdowns. He's had five catches in every single playoff game. Carnell Tate ($9,500 FD, $3,200 DK) also intrigues. At this salary he's pretty much a must-roster on DraftKings, while he's a bit more of a gamble on FanDuel. Tate had over 50 yards in each of the last five regular season games and had seven catches for 87 yards in the semis. However, he totaled two catches for 28 yards over the first two playoff games.
For me, the Notre Dame wide receivers are all rolls of the dice, so then the question becomes which is the most worth it. Your instinct might be that the answer is Jaden Greathouse ($9,000 FD, $3,800 DK). After all, he had seven catches for 105 yards in the semifinals. Well, that was on seven targets, and it was his second touchdown of the season. He totaled six catches for 49 yards over the previous five games. At FanDuel, I'd take my shot on Jordan Faison ($8,000 FD, $6,400 DK). Since getting healthy he's been targeted 36 times over eight games. Over at DraftKings, I would really roll the dice and go with Jayden Harrison ($6,500 FD, $1,400 DK). He returned a kickoff for a touchdown against Georgia and he's at least been targeted twice in each of the last two games. The odds of him scoring a touchdown are barely lower than Faison or Greathouse.
Good luck! Enjoy the game!
