College Football Championship Week is finally here, and Fantasy Alarm has you covered! Welcome to the CFB DFS Playbook (Championship Edition) as we kick off the Friday Night College Football Conference Championship slate with a focus on the top CFB DFS picks on DraftKings and FanDuel. There may be only two games, but one is the marquee game of the weekend as #3 Washington faces #5 Oregon at 8pm ET in the Pac-12 Championship game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The second game is not too shabby either as #24 Liberty takes on New Mexico State at 7pm ET at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, VA. Check out the college football betting odds, team totals, and over/under's below to get an idea of which games or teams to target in CFB DFS lineups. If you're building CFB DFS lineups tonight, be sure to check out our college football weekly projections and CFB DFS lineup generator. So now we are ready to dive in and check out my top CFB DFS top picks and plays for Friday Night December 1st. 

 

College Football Friday Night Championship Odds

  • 7p ET – New Mexico State @ Liberty (-11.0) 57.0 O/U
  • 8p ET – Oregon (-9.5) @ Washington 65.5 O/U 

 

College Football Friday Night Championship Picks

TOP CFB DFS QUARTERBACKS

Bo Nix- Oregon @ Washington ($9.5K DK/11.5K FD)

Bo Nix, the most prolific and accurate passer in the country this season has taken his game to even greater heights over the last 30 days, leading No. 5 Oregon to the Pac-12 championship game tonight against No. 3 Washington. He is completing 78.6% of his passes for 3,906 yards with 37 touchdowns and just two interceptions entering tonight’s game against another DFS darling- the Huskies Michael Penix Jr. With only $400 separating Nix and Penix Jr. the lean goes to Nix who has somehow put up even better numbers than he did earlier in the season.  Over his last four games Nix is averaging over 40.1 DK points while passing for 392.1 yards and 4.0 touchdowns per game. On the other hand, Pennix is only averaging 22.1 DK points and 238.5 yards passing and 2.0 touchdowns over the same span.

Diego Pavia- New Mexico State @ Liberty ($6.6K DK/9.5 FD)

Pavia has become an enigma in college football - he's got a cocky confidence about him that draws you in and makes you want to root for him as he led the Aggies to its first 10-win season since 1960. The numbers he puts up make that even easier - 28 total touchdowns and 3,535 total yards and since his Week 2 loss to Liberty (his worst performance of the season) he has passed for over 168 yards in seven of the 10 games since. Pavia has also proven to be a very effective runner, also getting over 800 rushing yards on the season as of just five quarterbacks in FBS who have rushed for at least 800 yards in 2023.

Other CFB DFS Quarterbacks:

Kaidon Salter, Liberty ($8.2K DK/11.0K FD)- The Pavia pivot as he already put up 35 DK points in the earlier meeting against New Mexico State and is averaging 30.8 DK points over the last four games. Another narrative is to use Salter in Penix Jr. lineups in case Oregon goes run heavy like they did in the earlier meeting with UW.

 

CFB DFS RUNNING BACKS

Bucky Irving- Oregon @ Washington ($6.9K DK/10.0K FD)

The Ducks relied heavily on Irving and the run back in Week 7 when they faced Washington, and he didn’t disappoint as her carried the ball 22 times (a season high) for 127 yards and a touchdown. score.  We may see the same game plan again tonight so get Irving in your lineups. Irving has been the man all season as he has now carried the ball 10 times in 11 straight games and ended with at least 87 rushing yards in six of his last nine starts. The Husky run defense ranks 40th in the nation in rushing yards allowed per game (134.6) and 125th in rush defense success rate. Irving has had four performances of 125 rushing yards or more in his career and two have come against the Huskies. Irving is my top overall play of tonight’s slate.

Quinton Cooley- Liberty vs. New Mexico State ($6.3K DK/9.4K FD)

Quinton Cooley led Conference USA with 1,251 rushing yards (104.3 yards per game average) and 13 rushing touchdowns this season. He averaged 6.3 yards per rush attempt had seven 100-yard games, including a 106-yard performance against this same New Mexico State during Week 2. New Mexico State is ranked 66th in the nation in rush defense and Cooley is going to eat tonight.  The running back has been the key reason why Liberty is undefeated at 12-0 and nearly 100% of my lineups will be anchored by Bucky Irving and Quinton Cooley.

Other CFB DFS Running Backs:

Jordan James, Oregon ($4.5K DK/6.9K FD)- Washington is horrible against the run and James is certainly capable of ripping off a long touchdown. He is averaging 13.1 DK points over the season but has taken a dip over the last four games (9.3 DK).

Dillon Johnson, Washinton ($6.0K DK.8.5K FD)- The bad news: the Oregon run defense is near elite which bumps Johnson down to GPP-only territory. The good news: Johnson is a real bell cow in the UW running backs room and will get plenty of carries (21.5 rushes over his last four games).

Billy Lucas, Liberty ($4.0K DK/5.7K FD)- Lucas ended the season averaging eight rushes per game and five touchdowns making him a nice GPP dart if multi-entering.

 

CFB DFS WIDE RECEVIERS

Tez Johnson, Oregon @ Washington ($6.6K DK/9.2K FD)

Without a single 100-yard game over the season's first eight weeks, Tez Johnson has three over the past four weeks which includes a season-high for any receiver against Cal with 180 yards. What makes this more interesting is that Johnson's emergence has helped quarterback Bo Nix surpass 350 pass yards in each game – the only Duck quarterback with such a stretch in school history. Listed as the WR2 Johnson has pretty much taken over at the alpha receiver been since the midpoint of the season with a 29% target share. Over the past six weeks, he's outproduced Troy Franklin by catching 48 passes for 668 yards and six touchdowns compared to 37 grabs for 660 yards and six scores for Franklin. 

Troy Franklin- Oregon @ Washington ($7.4K DK/10.2K FD)

Oregon wide receiver Troy Franklin is playing on a different level than we have witnessed from any other Ducks pass-catcher in quite a while. Through 12 games, Franklin has 77 catches for 1,349 yards and 14 touchdowns. He’s broken the Oregon Ducks single-season receiving records for yards and touchdowns and has also broken the school record for most receiving touchdowns in a career. Washington’s pass defense certainly isn’t elite, and Franklin will also be playing with a chip on his shoulder as he was nominated as one of the three finalists for the Biletnikoff Award (the top WR in college). Who was nominated? Marvin Harrison Jr, Malik Nabers and the receiver across the field from Franklin tonight- Rome Odunze. 

Rome Odunze- Washington vs. Oregon ($7.4K DK/10.0K FD)

Rome Odunze enters tonight’s Pac-12 championship game a mere 128 yards shy of knocking Reggie Williams, who set the standard for UW receiver play in the modern era back in 2001-03, from atop his perch as the all-time receiving leader his where his 1,454 receiving yards in 2002 have towered for two decades, more than 300 yards better than anybody since. Now it’s Odunze’s time and he has put up 90 DK points over the last three games plus put up an 8-128-2 line against Oregon earlier in the season on 12 targets.

CJ Daniels- Liberty vs. New Mexico State ($5.1K DK/8.0K FD)

After missing most of the 2022 season, CJ Daniels has re-emerged as a senior with big play ability.  This season he has 40 catches for 831 yards and nine touchdowns and commands a target share of 27%. Liberty does not throw the ball much but the main reason I like Daniels is that he is pretty much the Liberty receiving corps as no other pass catcher on the team has more than 20 receptions on the season.

Jalen McMillan- Washington vs. Oregon ($5.6K DK/7.5K FD)

Germie Bernard has done a fairly good job of filling in for Jalen McMillan this season, but he just wasn’t the threat that the junior brings to the table for the Huskies. After a 79 reception for 1,098 receiving yards year in 2022, McMillan was on pace to top those numbers before suffering a knee injury against Michigan State in Week 3 that kept him out until last week’s game against Washington State. Having a fully healthy McMillan as a reliable option over the middle of the field will be helpful for Penix as now Oregon will have two key in on two elite receivers instead of just Odunze. 

Aaron Bedgood- Liberty vs. New Mexico State ($3.2K DK/6.0K FD)

Aaron Bedgood is the sneak value of tonight’s slate. He came with Jamey Chadwell from Coastal Carolina and has been a very versatile player over the season. This is a bargain price for a player who plays both RB and WR and has put up some solid games during the season. During the Week 7 game against Jackson State, he ran the ball five times for 23 yards and caught two passes for 43 yards (14 DK); he then ran the ball nine times for 68 yards and caught three passes for 43 yards week 9 at Western Kentucky (20 DK) and during week 10 he ran five times for 23 yards and caught two more for 19 yards (18 DK) against Louisiana Tech. 

Other CFB DFS Wide Receivers:

Ja’Lynn Polk, Washington ($6.7K DK/8.4K FD)- Over the last four weeks Polk commands a 27% target share but failed to register a catch over the last two games. 

Terrance Ferguson, Oregon ($3.6K DK/5.9K FD)- Ferguson is fifth on the team in targets (42) with a 10% target share, and fourth in receptions (36).

Jack Westover, Washington ($3.3K DK/5.8K FD)- Westover let me down last week but is still third in routes run, targets (41) and touchdowns (4). He has 13 catches over the last three games. 

 

DraftKings Core 

  • Bo Nix, Oregon
  • Bucky Irving, Oregon
  • Quinton Cooley, Liberty

FanDuel Core

  • Bo Nix, Oregon
  • Bucky Irving, Oregon
  • Troy Franklin, Oregon