Week 12 is the first week of the playoffs in the Underdog Fantasy Best Bowl Mania tournament, so it’s important to think about bye weeks and playoff matchups. We’ve talked plenty about some of the teams with super soft matchups in week 12 (see below), but what about the games we should consider stacking to potentially maximize players and their upside? Let’s give it a look!
Texas A&M vs. New Mexico State
Alabama vs. Mercer
Auburn vs. UL Monroe
Kentucky vs. Murray State
Now to the games to stack…
Missouri at South Carolina
We all know what we’re going to get with Missouri, at least in the passing game. Brady Cook and Luther Burden have zero risk, making them great options in the playoffs. Add in the fact that South Carolina’s offense could be really good, and the game stack makes sense here.
LaNorris Sellers is the guy to safely target here, but you can find his receiving options on the cheap. Jared Brown is probably the guy I want to invest in the most, while Nyck Harbor could play his way into the WR1 role we want to target here. I like the idea of South Carolina having 10+ weeks to gel into the offense we think they can be as well.
Louisville at Stanford
The ACC has some really nice matchups in playoff bye weeks, and I think this one could sneakily reach the 70s in terms of total points scored. Tyler Shough, if still active by Week 12, will have a great opportunity to put up big points against Stanford and their second-worst scoring defense in FBS last season. There is some doubt as to who that WR1 will be for Shough, but I prefer them in this order: Caullin Lacy, Chris Bell, and Ja’Corey Brooks.
For Stanford, we all know where to focus our attention. Elic Ayomanor is a great target regardless of matchups, and Ashton Daniels could have 350+ passing attempts and 150+ rushing attempt volume in 2024. Sam Roush is a really cheap way to get a piece of this game and will barely cost you anything at the tight end position.
Boston College at SMU
Thomas Castellanos vs. Preston Stone is going to be everything we want it to be come playoff time. Castellanos could break 1,000 rushing yards this season, while Stone has 3,000 passing yards and 30 TDs in him with a dabble of rushing potential. I’m not sure I’m stacking either quarterback, but RJ Maryland at tight end or Jordan Hudson should be considered at or past their ADP. If you’re buying SMU players, it’s because of their playoff schedule. Why not utilize a stack or two?
Kansas at BYU
Jalon Daniels’ ADP is creeping up big time, so I’m pretty out on him, but I do think Devin Neal is incredibly valuable because of playoff weeks like BYU in week 12. He’ll be unleashed against this bad BYU defense in a great game script. I also think you can use a guy like Lawrence Arnold in this matchup.
For BYU, the lone bright spot is LJ Martin, but even then, his light has dimmed recently due to potential injury. The good news is that it sounds like he’ll miss four games max, meaning he should be back in plenty of time for this one. A rushing duel between Neal and Martin could be fun to watch as a fantasy owner. Keanu Hill, as a potential cheat code at tight end, is in play as well.
Cincinnati at Iowa State
Shifting back to a passing stack, Brendan Sorsby to Xzavier Henderson could easily be a thing we hear every week this season. I love them, even if Iowa State is no slouch on defense.
Iowa State has many options offensively, but I think the Rocco Becht to Jayden Higgins or Jaylin Noel stack will be fairly low-owned. Becht doesn’t have a ton of upside most weeks cause of his lack of rushing ability, but if this becomes a shootout, Becht has the talent and players around him to put up a big game for us through the air.
