Graded · 2 contests · 14,217 entries

CFB Week 8 DraftKings ownership: Main slate

What the field actually played on the CFB Week 8 DraftKings Main slate, next to what we projected before lock. Our misses are shown in full.

October 23, 2026 · Updated October 23, 2026 · After The Timeout

5 games · classic

The slate at a glance

Sport
CFB
Week
Week 8
Site
DraftKings
Format
Classic
Games
5
Teams
AF, ARMY, DUKE, NCST, STAN, TLSA, UCONN, UMASS, UVA, WYO
First lock
Fri Oct 23, 7:00 PM ET
Player pool
75 players
Projections
Captured Fri Oct 23, 6:37 PM ET, before lock

Top 12 by real ownership

The chalk: who the field played most

Field ownership is the share of lineups that used each player, from 2 large-field tournament contests, 14,217 entries. Gap is the field minus our projection: green means the field played him more than we expected.

Some field numbers read low. Part of the real ownership here comes from a results source that counts each player in one roster slot only, so a player the field used in more than one slot can show less ownership than he really had.

Ours vs the field, 2 large-field tournament contests, 14,217 entries
PlayerPosOursFieldGap
Nate SheppardDUKERB5.2%57.4%+52.2
Davion GauseNCSTRB8.0%55.4%+47.4
Preston DouglasNCSTWR16.9%45.7%+28.8
Kalieb OsborneUCONNQB23.9%38.9%+15.0
Cyncir BowersUCONNRB100.0%38.0%−62.0
Cale HellumsARMYQB68.1%36.0%−32.1
Oran Singleton Jr.TLSAWR100.0%34.4%−65.6
Javon RossTLSAWR62.0%31.8%−30.3
CJ BaileyNCSTQB10.6%31.2%+20.6
Evan MeddersAFQB17.0%30.7%+13.7
Jabari LewisUMASSWR34.2%30.4%−3.8
Keenan JacksonNCSTWR13.2%28.0%+14.8

10 players where we were furthest off

Our biggest misses

We publish these on purpose. The players the field played far more than we expected, and the ones it passed on.

The field played him more than we projected
PlayerPosOursFieldGap
Nate SheppardDUKERB5.2%57.4%+52.2
Davion GauseNCSTRB8.0%55.4%+47.4
Preston DouglasNCSTWR16.9%45.7%+28.8
CJ BaileyNCSTQB10.6%31.2%+20.6
Jekail MiddlebrookUVARB1.9%20.4%+18.5
The field played him less than we projected
PlayerPosOursFieldGap
Oran Singleton Jr.TLSAWR100.0%34.4%−65.6
Cyncir BowersUCONNRB100.0%38.0%−62.0
Trey CornistUCONNRB56.5%1.3%−55.2
Micah FordSTANRB53.4%20.8%−32.6
Cale HellumsARMYQB68.1%36.0%−32.1

Large-field tournament contests · n = 86 players

How our projections held up

We compared our projected ownership with the real field for 86 players across 2 large-field tournament contests (14,217 entries). On average our number was 9.0 percentage points away from the field's. On the 23 players at 10% ownership or more, the average gap was 23.2 points. Across the board the field owned these players 0.1 points less than we projected, on average.

9.0 ptsaverage gap, ours vs the field (86 players)
0.53correlation with real ownership, 1.00 is a perfect match (n = 86)
23.2 ptsaverage gap on the 23 players at 10%+
2large-field tournament contests, 14,217 entries
The grade by contest type
Contest typeContestsEntriesPlayersAvg gapCorr
Large-field tournament214,217869.00.53

We grade a contest type once it has at least 2 contests. Cash games are not used to grade tournament ownership.

What these numbers mean

Average gap is how far our projected ownership sat from the real field, in percentage points, averaged over every player compared. If we had a player at 20% and the field played him at 26%, that player adds a 6-point gap.

Correlation measures whether we had the order right: who the field would play most and least. 1.00 would be a perfect match and 0 would be no relationship at all.

Players compared covers our whole player pool plus anyone the field used that we did not have in it.

The 2 contests behind these numbers
ContestGroupEntriesFeeMax entries
CFB $4K mini-MAX [150 Entry Max]large-field tournament9,512$0.50150
CFB $60K Friday Night Special [$20K to 1st]large-field tournament4,705$15-
How our fantasy point projections held up

Across 75 players, our point projections missed by 5.8 fantasy points on average (5.9 on players who scored), with a correlation of 0.63 against what they actually scored.

Biggest point misses
PlayerOursActualGap
Caden HighSTAN4.728.3+23.6
Davis WarrenSTAN8.331.7+23.4
Trey CornistUCONN18.41.9−16.5
Shamar PorterUCONN4.018.0+14.0
Jekail MiddlebrookUVA9.623.5+13.9
By position
PosPlayersAvg missBias
QB137.1+0.5
RB275.0−1.4
WR355.9−0.2

Before the next lock

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Members get projected ownership and points for every player on every slate we cover, lineups tested in contest simulations, and this grade on each one afterwards.

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