So after several weeks and therapy I think we're ready to dispassionately regard things of a college football nature without the hurting. This is good because we know things about college football, and can use that knowledge for good, or you know, for picking fantasy teams.
This week we're congregating in the college football $20k mini cash bowl. It's a $2 entry fee with $20k in prizes, and a lot of space left. I liked it because the bowl lineup has a lot of teams I pay attention to, including all the New Years Day games.
Everyone has their tricks for drafting; I like to bring in advanced stats to know things like are both teams going to be playing at a high tempo (so more plays for my draftees) and if his opponent is an outlier against the relevant element (run/pass) of offense. I'll share my table for the pool of draftable players in this game, and highlight outliers (top 20 or bottom 30):
| Matchup | Pass Def Rk | Rush Def Rk | Plays/Min (rk) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Game | Tm1 | Tm 2 | Tm1 | Tm 2 | Tm1 | Tm2 |
| Florida St. vs. Oregon | 58 | 33 | 50 | 42 | 2.37 (73) | 2.74 (11) |
| Washington vs. Oklahoma St. | 55 | 53 | 47 | 41 | 2.51 (41) | 2.53 (36) |
| Iowa vs. Tennessee | 65 | 13 | 24 | 22 | 2.33 (77) | 2.5 (42) |
| Kansas St. vs. UCLA | 51 | 23 | 27 | 54 | 2.08 (113) | 2.62 (25) |
| Ohio St. vs. Alabama | 10 | 26 | 37 | 1 | 2.33 (81) | 2.28 (90) |
| Houston vs. Pittsburgh | 93 | 76 | 111 | 93 | 2.45 (50) | 2.07 (116) |
| Missouri vs. Minnesota | 22 | 43 | 11 | 30 | 2.37 (70) | 2.08 (112) |
| Wisconsin vs. Auburn | 31 | 47 | 29 | 18 | 2.03 (123) | 2.42 (56) |
I got tempo by dividing the total number of offensive plays by time of possession from NCAA's stats (saving the greater study for an offseason column). Rankings are from Football Outsiders' S&P+. From there you have to eyeball—a low tempo doesn't mean skip the guy and a bad rush defense doesn't mean you have to take that RB, but it does say if you're looking at spending $11k of your salary pool on Melvin Gordon it's good to know that Auburn has a pretty good rush D. Wisconsin's slow pace is Wisconsin's slow pace; Auburn's average pace suggests Gordon will get the usual amount of touches.
Details:
-$20,000 prize pool.
- First place wins $2,000
- $2 entry fee (FREE with first deposit).
- Top 2,300 win money guaranteed
- Starts on Thursday, January 1st at 12:00 PM EST
- Salary Cap Style Drafting. $50,000 to select 9 players
- Roster Format: 2 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE and 1 Flex
- First time depositors at DraftKings receive a 100% bonus up to $600