This article is part of our DFS College Football series.
The College Football Championship will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET Monday evening as the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies battle for the title in Houston. Due to potential wet weather, the roof of NRG Stadium will be closed, thus eliminating any weather concerns for the game. We'll cover the single-game and showdown contests below, revealing a couple of different avenues of attack in the formats.
Slate Formats
As a refresher, I'll briefly run down the formats for both sites. Both sites have one slot that grants a 1.5x Multiplier (CPTN, MVP), but DraftKings' added wrinkle is a 0.5 increase in salary for the player selected in the multiplier spot. DraftKings offers five UTIL spots to round out the roster, while FanDuel provides four FLEX positions. DraftKings also allows for kicker selection, while FanDuel does not include kickers in their player pool.
College Football DFS Picks for National Championship Game
Multiplier Candidates (CPTN/MVP)
Blake Corum, Michigan 
(DK $15,900(CPTN), $10,400(UTIL), FD $16,000)
Michael Penix, Washington
(DK $16,500(CPTN), $11,000(UTIL), FD $16,500)
I see no way around an exclusion for either player, so it's a question of who should earn the multiplier for the evening. There's no denying Penix's potential for production, but Michigan's defense is certainly cause for concern. Penix possesses the superior receiving weapons (see below). Still, they'll have more trouble getting behind a tough Michigan secondary, not to mention a defensive front that sacked Jalen Milroe six times. Washington also allows an average of 125.2 yards to opposing
The College Football Championship will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET Monday evening as the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies battle for the title in Houston. Due to potential wet weather, the roof of NRG Stadium will be closed, thus eliminating any weather concerns for the game. We'll cover the single-game and showdown contests below, revealing a couple of different avenues of attack in the formats.
Slate Formats
As a refresher, I'll briefly run down the formats for both sites. Both sites have one slot that grants a 1.5x Multiplier (CPTN, MVP), but DraftKings' added wrinkle is a 0.5 increase in salary for the player selected in the multiplier spot. DraftKings offers five UTIL spots to round out the roster, while FanDuel provides four FLEX positions. DraftKings also allows for kicker selection, while FanDuel does not include kickers in their player pool.
College Football DFS Picks for National Championship Game
Multiplier Candidates (CPTN/MVP)
Blake Corum, Michigan (DK $15,900(CPTN), $10,400(UTIL), FD $16,000)
Michael Penix, Washington (DK $16,500(CPTN), $11,000(UTIL), FD $16,500)
I see no way around an exclusion for either player, so it's a question of who should earn the multiplier for the evening. There's no denying Penix's potential for production, but Michigan's defense is certainly cause for concern. Penix possesses the superior receiving weapons (see below). Still, they'll have more trouble getting behind a tough Michigan secondary, not to mention a defensive front that sacked Jalen Milroe six times. Washington also allows an average of 125.2 yards to opposing rushes, which compels me to give the multiplier to Corum. No matter how you go, you should endeavor to make room for both players despite the increased difficulty of achieving that goal.
UTIL/FLEX Candidates
Jack Westover, Washington (DK $5,000, FD $8,500)
James Turner, Michigan (DK ONLY, $4,600)
Colston Loveland, Michigan (DK $6,400, FD $8,500)
Jalen McMillan, Washington (DK $7,200, FD $11,000)
Ja'Lynn Polk, Washington (DK $8,800, FD $10,000)
With both sites, spending up for Penix and Corum leaves you at a significant deficit, so I have Westover at the top of this list. A Corum/Penix/Westover stack gives you an average of $6,033 per player remaining on DraftKings and $9,500 per player on FanDuel. Despite Westover's assistance, we =still have work to do, which is why I like James Turner ($4,600) as a cost-saving option on DraftKings. Using a kicker isn't always the best call, but considering Michigan's tendency to lean on Corum, offensive stars for Michigan are at a minimum.
Using Turner and Westover put us in better shape on DraftKings, where I could now go with McMillan. Interestingly, McMillan commands a higher price than Ja'Lynn Polk on FanDuel, so Polk would be my next choice. Since we don't have Turner to use on FanDuel, we'd need a budget target to put us at a better average for the final spots, and Colston Loveland definitely fits the bill, especially on FanDuel, where we'd have the ability to include Polk in the last spot.
Deep Dives
As you can tell, Rome Odunze, Dillon Johnson and J.J. McCarthy did not make our list. While we can eliminate McCarthy as the lesser quarterback and Johnson due to injury concerns, leaving someone like Odunze on the table is difficult to swallow. For those willing to take some chances, you could stack Penix and a couple of receivers (including Odunze) if you pivoted deeper in the player pool. Michigan's Cornelius Johnson (DK $3,800, FD $8,000) comes to find first, with Washington's Germie Bernard (DK $1,600, FD $7,500) also working as a flier. For both sites, grabbing Odunze becomes possible with these additional budget options. For the Michigan fans out there, you are probably swapping Penix for McCarthy already, but you can get both quarterbacks with more shuffling as well.
