Hopefully, you've been enjoying the seasons at hand, both holiday and bowl. This Saturday is robust for college football. Over at FanDuel, there are seven bowl games, including in the DFS slate, all the games starting at 12 p.m. ET or later, and we have the college football DFS picks to scratch your holiday itch.
The 11 a.m. The ET start between East Carolina and Pittsburgh in the Military Bowl is not included, but of course, you can make your way to playing some college football DFS on that front if you are so inclined. I, though, will be focused on the main slate, which is comprised of seven games. One of those games will involve a sentient pastry being murdered and consumed. You'll never guess which one.
CFB DFS Slate Preview for Saturday, December 27
Obviously, all of these games are of the neutral-field variety. Let's run through these quickly for starters…
Pinstripe Bowl: Penn State vs. Clemson (12 p.m. ET)
Fenway Bowl: UConn vs. Army (2:15 p.m. ET)
Pop-Tarts Bowl: Georgia Tech vs. BYU (3:30 p.m. ET)
Arizona Bowl: Miami (OH) vs. Fresno State (4:30 p.m. ET)
New Mexico Bowl: North Texas vs. San Diego State (5:45 p.m. ET)
Gator Bowl: Virginia vs. Missouri (7:30 p.m. ET)
Texas Bowl: LSU vs. Houston (9:15 p.m. ET)
That's an interesting slate! I will note that both the Pinstripe and Fenway Bowls are played in baseball stadiums, which are not designed for football and thus can yield unusual logistics. The Pop-Tarts Bowl, in addition to all its pomp and circumstance, is the one game between ranked teams. Houston is playing in, well, Houston, though not at home per se, and LSU has plenty of fans to grab tickets for that one. Of course, Tigers fans may be feeling burnt out from all the chaos surrounding the program. LSU, as well as Penn State, UConn, and North Texas, all lost their head coaches at one point in this season.
There's also the transfer portal of it, the kind of thing that leads to somebody like North Texas' star quarterback Drew Mestemaker being doubtful for the New Mexico Bowl, having caught a case of, "Never in a million years am I going to risk my health and NIL money in this game."
It's the nature of the beast until FBS football starts shifting things for the better (or the worse), so let me get down to the FanDuel DFS recommendations.
Quarterback DFS Plays for Saturday, December 27
Cale Hellums, Army vs. UConn ($11,200): Call it typecasting, but I always feel like service academy players are more likely to give it their all in a bowl game. The junior Hellums isn't going anywhere, and he'll be in line to start for Army again next season. He has run for 1,178 yards and 16 touchdowns this season, and Hellums only lost one fumble. The Huskies allowed 185.5 rushing yards per game, and head coach Jim Mora is off to Colorado State.
Chandler Morris, Virginia vs. Missouri ($8,600): It's been a long road for Morris. This is his sixth season of collegiate football. He left TCU for North Texas, where he became a star in 2024, and used to that as a springboard to start for Virginia. As a Cavalier, he has thrown for 16 touchdowns and run for five more. The Tigers don't have a bad defense; in fact, their defense was quite good this year. This is a bowl game, though, Virginia's players will probably want to avenge the loss to Duke that kept the team out of the playoffs, and Morris will want to go out on a high note. Then he'll probably become a coach because, you know, nepotism. When it comes to bowl game DFS, you have to accept being a bit more vibes-based than you might otherwise be inclined to.
Ethan Grunkemeyer, Penn State vs. Clemson ($7,800): The redshirt freshman Grunkemeyer, in addition to having a fun name, is auditioning in the Pinstripe Bowl in a manner of speaking. That may be for Matt Campbell, or it may be for another program. Grunkemeyer didn't excel after being thrust into action, but he did complete 75.3 percent of his passes for five touchdowns and one interception over his last four games. As for Clemson, it gave up 250.5 passing yards per contest. For context, that sits right in between Tennessee and Okahoma State, two teams lampooned for their pass defenses.
Running Back DFS Plays for Saturday, December 27
Ahmad Hardy, Missouri vs. Virginia ($10,800): Making the move from the Sun Belt to the SEC, Hardy broke tackle after tackle en route to 1,560 yards and 16 carries on the ground. Now, Hardy was a bit of a flat-track bully, beating up on easy competition, but he ran for two touchdowns against Auburn and 109 yards and a touchdown against Texas A&M. I do like to have a star in a bowl game when feasible, and in the ACC title games, Nate Sheppard of Duke ran for 97 yards and a touchdown against Virginia. Sheppard is no Hardy.
Lucky Sutton, SDSU vs. North Texas ($8,300): Run, don't walk, to roster Sutton. He has run for 1,232 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Aztecs, notching five 100-yard games against FBS opponents. North Texas, on the other hand, has the worst run defense of any bowl team. The Mean Green have given up 207.2 rushing yards per game.
Christian Washington, SDSU vs. North Texas ($6,200): There's room for more than one San Diego State running back on a DFS roster. Maybe you want to roll the dice to save some salary, or maybe you want to roster both Washington and Sutton and dream of the Aztecs running all over North Texas' woeful run defense. Twelve FBS teams gave up over 200 rushing yards per game, and North Texas is one of them. Washington ran for at least 70 yards in each of his last three contests, and those are his three biggest games of the year. Peaking at the right time for bowl purposes, perhaps?
Sione Moa, BYU vs. Georgia Tech ($5,000): The BYU situation is a "You're guess is as good as mine" scenario. LJ Martin ran the ball 236 times for 1,305 yards and 12 touchdowns and added 36 catches for 255 yards…before going down with a season-ending shoulder injury in BYU's last game. Nobody emerged as a proper secondary back for the Cougars this season, so we can't know for sure how the carries will be allotted in the bowl game. Moa, though, began the season second on the depth chart and was getting a handful of touches a game before his own long-term injury. Now, Moa is back, Martin is out, and Georgia Tech has allowed 169.7 rushing yards per game.
Wide Receiver DFS Plays for Saturday, December 27
Amare Thomas, Houston vs. LSU ($9,400): The move from UAB to Houston panned out for Thomas, who developed an immediate rapport with Conner Weigman. He has 59 catches for 906 yards and 10 touchdowns. LSU has allowed 202.5 passing yards per game, which is above average, though not remarkable. I'm betting on the circumstances for the LSU program leaving Houston in a better place for this bowl game, which is adjacent to being a home game.
Parker Kingston, BYU vs. Georgia Tech ($8,700): It turns out that, while not as easy as running on them, it's not hard to pass on the Yellow Jackets, either. Georgia Tech allowed 227.3 passing yards per contest, and that was not against an impressive schedule. Kingston has 61 catches this year with four 100-yard games. While he only has five receiving touchdowns, he's added three rushing scores.
Trebor Pena, Penn State vs. Clemson ($6,200): It would appear that Grunkemeyer likes Pena as a receiving option. Over the last four games of the regular season, Pena had 18 catches. Clemson, which, like Penn State, didn't expect to be here, has given up 250.5 passing yards per contest, as I noted. Pena only has one touchdown this season, but he could add a second here in a bowl game.
Brady Anderson, Army vs. UConn ($5,800): Hey, it's a bowl game, why not air it out a few times? Anderson has notched 381 yards and two touchdowns through the air for Army. The Huskies have allowed 227.7 passing yards and 25.8 points per game. This is, of course, a low-salary gamble, but if Army scores a passing touchdown and you have Anderson on your roster, that's going to feel pretty good.
