MAC Football kicks off on Wednesday and it’s a juicy six game slate. They will each be playing a 6 game schedule and hopefully we get full slates during the course of the season from DraftKings as they roll on out and we don’t wind up with too many split slates or Showdowns.
GAMES ON THE SLATE
- 62.5: Eastern Michigan at Kent State (-6.5)
- 61.5: Bowling Green at Toledo (-22)
- 60.5: Ohio at Central Michigan (-1)
- 55.5: Ball State at Miami Oh. (-2)
- 55.5: Western Michigan (-18) at Akron
- 52.5: Buffalo (-11) at Nothern Illinois
FAVORITE GAME
Unlike the Power 5 conferences, there’s not always a huge reason to pinpoint a single game as a game-stack. Not a ton of passing from most of these teams and not a lot of good defenses either to slow down the ground games. That said, I’ll try to find the top game overall each MAC slate and focus a CORE around that when appliacble.
Ball State vs Miami (OH)
The thing that I like about Ball St. here is that they have a three headed core in Drew Plitt (QB), Caleb Huntley (RB) and Justin Hall (WR) who are returning and can be trusted to move the ball down the field and score. Ball State had a lot of high scoring games last year and beat this Miami of Ohio team. They are returning a bunch of starters from last season and I expect this game to be competitive and have lots of fantasy goodness in it for those who want to stack. Miami will be without it’s top RB, Jaylon Bester which really opens up a few more opportunities for Jack Sorenson as a nice mid range WR play at $5,200
Ball State: Plitt, Huntley, Hall
Miami: Brett Gabbert (QB), Jack Sorenson (WR)
QUARTERBACKS
I will not be looking to spend up on this slate, so we can throw the highest priced QB, Dustin Crum ($9,200) out the window and I have a note on his top WR below. We need clarification on who is going to start for Ohio but honestly it sounds like it will be a timeshare situation. The preferred option is Armani Rogers at $5,700 but I would use him as a Super Flex option tonight.
- Kaleb Eleby (WMU) – $7,000: He will be the highest owned QB on this slate as he takes over the starting QB job for Western Michigan against the worst team in 2019 in all of college football – Akron. If you do not use him then use RB Sean Tyler ($5,800) instead.
- Drew Plitt (Ball State) – $8,100: This game has the best shot to be back and forth and I would look at doing a QB Super-Flex stack if you buy into WR on both side –which is contrarian enough.
- Brett Gabbert (Miami) – $6,600: Game stack with Plitt only.
RUNNING BACKS
Simply put, if you are not going a game stack at QB, you’ll want 4 RB tonight and these are the 4. TYVM, next question…
CORE
- Bryant Koback (Toldeo) – $8,200: This is the guy who is in the best spot and has the most logical path to hitting the highest PT/$ value on the entire slate. If you are going with a game stack route mentioned above then I would look to pivot off one of the high priced RB for a second tier RB, and Koback is not the one tonight to pivot off.
- Jaret Patterson (Buffalo) – $9,800: Highest owned player as the STUD RB in this conference.
- Kobe Lewis (CMU) – $7,200: With some passing game questions on the CMU side at Quarterback, we could see them lean heavily on Lewis
VALUE
- Marquez Cooper (Kent St) – $3,000: I encourage you to get on Twitter and try and validate Cooper hype before game time but all signs point to this being the easiest play on the slate. Min priced true Freshman who is going to get some work at RB in a game I prefer the ground game over the air attack. Just take the free square and move on.
Other viable: Kobe Lewis, Caleb Huntley
WIDE RECEIVERS
BEST STUD
- Isaiah McKoy (Kent State) – $8,100: A good way to expose yourself to something that is popular is normally to do it while wearing a mask so that the police cannot identify you when the female you exposed yourself too reports you. Wait, that’s not the type of exposure I am trying to explain here. What I am saying is one way to expose yourself to Dustin Crum is to take his #1 WR and hope that Crum does all his damage through the air instead of rushing the ball in for touchdowns. Crum needs two rushing touchdowns to justify his cost and the rushing path vs EMU isn’t as lock button as you might think. This is a contrarian way to get the Kent State QB points on your team but while getting the reception value at a low ownership spot.
MID RANGE OPTIONS
- Quian Williams (EMU) – $6,000
- Julian Ortega-Jones (BGSU) – $4,400
- JaCorey Sullivan (CMU) – $5,100: His teammate Pimpleton will be popular but it’s equally a good spot and the price discount is a nice pivot for me.
VALUE OPTIONS
- D’Wayne Eskridge (WMU) – $4,700: Deep threat and under 5k just needs one big catch to pay off.
Other viable: Hall (Ball St), Sorenson (Miami) in a game-stack together.
CORE BUILD
Eleby, Koback, Cooper, Eskridge