Underdog Fantasy has dropped a playoff best ball tournament, so you know I’m hopping on this opportunity to make diaper money and give my thoughts on how to tackle these drafts best. I had an expert in the DFS/Props space, we’ll call him Mike, who asked me to explain how to best draft for this tournament. And that’s how I knew some tips and tricks could be helpful. Let’s get into it…
Basic Scoring Rules
The format for this tournament is simple once it’s laid out to you. You’re building a team that needs to be the highest scorer each week. This means that you need to have five eligible players (QB/RB/WRTE/WRTE/FLEX) each week.
While the general consensus is that Texas Tech or Indiana will meet Georgia or Ohio State in the championship, you can’t only draft players from those teams because you’ll never get to the championship round if you have nobody playing in the first round.
5 and 5
Your roster very likely needs five eligible players in the championship game to take down this tournament. So, when you’re drafting, you should be looking at your lineup and saying, “Is it possible to have five players facing off in the final week?” And to go with that, you want five eligible players from the first round.
If you agree with the general consensus that TTU or IU will face off against UGA or Ohio State, then when you take your first player from those pairings, you should automatically eliminate the other team from your pool. For example, if you take Fernando Mendoza, then you need to rule out every Texas Tech player. If you take Jeremiah Smith, then you need to avoid players from Georgia.
2 QBs Max – 8 Flex
To do the above, you can only take two quarterbacks. Because there is no superflex, having two quarterbacks eligible in the first round or the national championship won’t fill out your full roster of five players.
This means that you want eight total flex players. I lean towards two running backs and six receivers, but three and five also work. Considering how good the first round RB options are (Lacy/Davison/Whittington), you can afford to take one there and likely get a great game to go along with whatever championship RB you want. It also helps with the draft because there are so many possible receiver options that could have big games.
Sneaky Value
As we saw with Best Bowl Mania this past offseason, the ADP is not accurate, at least for now. A few players you should throw in your queue so that they don’t slip by you when drafting include:
Trinidad Chambliss
Kewan Lacy
Noah Whittington
Jordan Davison
KC Concepcion
Malachi Toney
Kenyon Sadiq
Dakorien Moore (if healthy)
Team Flexibility
When you’re looking at the top four teams, there are varying levels of difficulty in getting to five eligible players for the national championship. I’ve found that Texas Tech is the easiest of the bunch because the overall cost is less than the others, but also because they use two running backs, three receivers, and a tight end all willingly. When looking at Ohio State, though, you’re looking at one running back, two receivers, and a tight end who are worth drafting.
Indiana has some late value to be had if you take Mendoza and miss out on Elijah Sarratt. You could easily get to that five number by taking Roman Hemby, Omar Cooper, EJ Williams, and/or Charlie Becker in some combination with your UGA/OSU side of the bracket. Georgia, on the other hand, is fairly cheap, and for good reason. Gunnar Stockton is a valuable fantasy asset, but taking their flex guys feels like it isn’t worth it unless very late.
I hope this article gives you some insight and things to think about while you’re drafting this playoff best ball season. Reach out to me on X/Twitter at @RealestChrisKay for any and all questions you may have!
