FCS Week 0 Picks: 6 Market Plays | Invest in the FCS

Welcome everybody to Invest in the FCS. I am Coach Gene Clemons and I am so awesome. It's it's just an awesome thing to be with you all right now. We've got a great lineup for today because you are here because you are trying to find the best investments you can at this level. Nobody talks a lot about the FCS, but we're going to invest in the FCS. Let's get it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Invest in the FCS. I am Coach Gene Clemons. This is a seven oracles production. Your favorite oracle here. Um we didn't get to Thursday, right? And I'm I'm still bummed that we didn't get to Thursday, but there are there is a lot of meat on the bone. There's a lot of places in the FCS that is w that is worth investing in. And I hope that all of you get the opportunity to see some things. Maybe agree, disagree, whatever. It's okay because as the season evolves, obviously, we get more information. We learn more things. But make no mistake about it, this show is about like making the best out of your investment in the FCS. I'm not trying to prove to all of you how smart I am. I'm not trying to prove to all of you that I'm the most knowledgeable person in the FCS. I am finding the places where it makes sense to invest and come out with a profit. That's it. This is there's no ego involved here. So, if there's blowouts, don't tell me, hey, why is he always picking the teams that are going to blow out? Of course, we know they're going to win. Well, that's the point, right? Like I'm not just trying to win some prognostication award. We're trying to build our savings. We're trying to build our nest egg, our bankroll, right? We want to be able to invest in things that are going to yield a dividend. And if it's not going to yield a dividend, then why are we, you know, wasting our time with it? So, let's get started off the bat with our first game of the day. Uh 6 pm. We got, you know, three today on Friday and then we have three tomorrow for Saturday. So, we've got a few We got a few hours until the first couple of games start. I wanted to get in now. Let's look at our first one of the day. Again, 6:00 p. p.m. start. Let's go. Yeah. And our first game of the day, William and Mary versus Villanova. Villanova had a nice little run in the playoffs last season 2025. Ended up probably losing before people thought that they would lose, but a really excellent squad, a William and Mary squad that's coming over to a new to a new conference. Um six new starters for William and Mary. six new starters, including a new QB. That offense is going to need time to gel, right? Is going to need time to gel. And because of that, and because Villanova returns a really strong defense, right, a defense that's going to look to hit the ground running fast in 2026, like that's going to matter ultimately, not only to the overall score, right? I think Nova's going to win this game. But what I really looked at was the under 49.5, right? The under 49.5 on Kalshi, right? That's where that's where we're looking at in this realm and where we think the value truly lives because in order to get 250, you have to have participation from two teams. I think Nova will score and I think Nova will do it like with a ground game that's going to be potent with a ground game that's going to chew up clock and as it chews up clock that's less time for William and Mary to score right as it chews up clock that's less opportunity for William and Mary to get on the board. And so as that clock continues to churn and as Villanova's defense comes up and they shut down William and Mary, right, we're going to see that there's no chance for this to get over 50. This game went over 55 points last year or when it was at 55 points last year. Villanova is not going to like that they gave up so many points to William and Mary last year. Many of those guys are the same guys that were there in 2025. That's why this defense is going to be good. And that heavy run rushing attack is going to be able to take the clock off. That defense is going to stifle William and Mary's rushing attack. They're going to get the ball back to Nova. And as we look up, it'll just not be enough time for them to score, you know, that many points. Right now 49 1/2 is trading or under 49.5 is trading at 55% on Kalshi that means that you have a they're they're leaning towards that way right again if you like the if you like the point spread 13.5 trading at 49% I think there's a chance that you could they could end up with you know that they could end up winning by two touchdowns but I don't even know why I would why I would, you know, risk it. Villanova and William and Mary are both going to go into this game looking to figure some things out. Villanova has the advantage cuz they have on returners if the game gets out of hand or if it gets like double digits or three touchdowns. What's the incentive for them to try to run it up? the incentive is to try to get out of there healthy and stay healthy so that they can deal with the gauntlet that is now their new conference, right? So, it's get it right, make sure we're on the right track, get out of there un I mean without any injuries and go to work. So, Nova versus William and Mary, our first one of the day, first investment of the day under 49.5. That's what I like. Let's take a look at our second investment of the day. I just love the fact that it's raining money right there, right? Because that's what you want. You want your investments to rain money and I want to be able to with you. One thing you should all know is that if there's any time that your investment doesn't pay off, you don't have to worry about it, right? You know, you call up a brokerage company and you ask for some advice on investing and they tell you what the best things to invest in. You don't know if they have their if they have their hard-earned money in this. You should know this about me. If I tell you to invest in something and it doesn't hit, then we died together. I feel very strong about that and I think you should as well. Um Rhode Island, right? Rhode Island coming into this season. Um one of the favorites, right? One of the favorites. They return a bevy of offensive starters. They've got their starting quarterback back, starting wide receiver and all preseason all-American, starting offensive lineman, right? That's a great little nucleus to come back into a season with. But then they also have the added advantage of having a lot of their backups back because and as I was talking to the head coach from Rhode Island during their media day this year, he talked about it and he said like, “Hey, you know, there's the roadie way and the roadie way is not for everybody, but the people who like lean into the roadie way, they tend to stay. They tend to hang out.“ and it's been one of their biggest attributes over the last few years is being able to retain the players so that they can build upon the previous season. Right? So, several key returners on offense as they take on Merrimack. Now, they traveled to Merrimack. And normally, you could be a little bit squeamish about taking a road team, a road favorite because especially at the beginning of the year because so many things could happen. But,, 16.5 points for Rhode Island, it is trading at 59%. there. 65% of the market believes that Rhode Island is going to win this game by three touchdowns. So, there's inherent value in taking this at 16.5 hedging. Hey, maybe they don't get to 21, maybe they get to 17, maybe they get to 20, right? We never know how the ball is going to bounce. But I feel very comfortable in saying that Rhode Island has a defense that is loaded with returners, right, that is extremely stout against the run. Well, where is Merrimack going to try to make their bones? They're going to make their bones in the run game. Why? Because they're breaking in a new starter. Like, who's their starting quarterback, right? They have some returners at running back, at offensive line, that at receiver, that's great, but who's the trigger man? And so to try to make life easy for that guy, they're going to lean into the rushing attack until they have no other choice. I see Rhode Island going up by a couple scores in the first half, tightening down the reigns. Now the pressure cooker jolts up for Merrimack. They've got to press in order to try to get to get scores on the board. And that's when they fold. That's when they crush. and then you add on another score, whether that's a field goal, whether that's another touchdown. Either way, your investment is good, right? I like Rhode Island in their first game of the year on the road, one of the favorites in the CAA. I like them to win this game by more than 16.5 points. Like I really I'm I'm big on the Ca and the you know and the Patriot League this year. I like what both teams have done or what both conferences have done to buoy and I think I like the fact that there are halves and have nots which makes it easier for us to try to prognosticate where to put our investment. So, I'm I'm I'm I'm really bullish on, you know, on that. So, let's look at our next investment for today. Our last Friday, our last Friday night investment for this episode. And before we do that, we just got to pay some bills. So,, we'll be back with, you know, our looks at New Hampshire and all at Albany right after this Yeah. And make sure that you're going over to the7oracles.com predictionmarketspicks.com. They'll both take you there and check out all of the tools that we have if you're an NFL guy, if you're an NFL girl. Um, if you love to look at all the different edges that you can find when it comes to the NFL, that's the place to be. If you're into if you're into shows and checking out, you know, who what the Rotten Tomatoes is going to be, right? Like that's the place to be. If you want to hear expert advice about who's going to win the Heisman this year, that's the place to be over at the7oracles.com or predictionmarketspicks.com, go over there, check it out. And right now, promo code NFL edge gets you 50% off. Definitely go over there and check that out. Now, New H New Hampshire, another road team. New Hampshire at Albany, right? New Hampshire goes to Albany. We know that, you know, New Hampshire has an advantageous defense, right? Elite defenders all over the place. They have the opportunity to really squash and shut down opposing offenses. Albany has struggled. Albany has struggled. And because of that, they have a new head coach. And because of that, that new head coach brought in 20 new, not one, not two, not three, not four, but 20 new transfers. Now, we all know that this transfer thing can go up or down, right? Like the transfer thing is a little bit like volatile cuz you don't know if you got good transfers or if you got bad ones. Like, it's almost like it's like it's almost like adoption. Everyone wants to believe that they can help all everyone, but unfortunately sometimes you get a bad apple, right? Like you've got to work with it to make the best out of it, but it's not advantageous. And that's what I think Albany is dealing with as they try to reshape that culture and redo the things like that's what that's what they're going to be trying to do. But this is a terrible team to have to do that against, right? Because what's the continuity going to look like? Especially on offense, right? What's the continuity going to look like on offense versus a defense that has linebacker after linebacker who are all used to playing against the run? That's a recipe for disaster. Meanwhile, on the New Hampshire side, they're going to just keep rolling along, right? They're going to just keep rolling along. They have legend after legend of head coaches that keep coming back to take over the program. So it doesn't matter that they have a new head coach. Why? Because that's a guy who understands the climate. That is New Hampshire. The standard is the standard. They come out, they put it they put it on Albany early and then they just pull away late. I like them right now. Nine and a half. New Hampshire at 9.5 is trading at 55%. You got to take advantage of that while you can because in my opinion that's a great right that's a great one. That's one that you want to take advantage of. I like the number on it. I would be willing to probably even take it at 13.5. But why? It's the beginning of the year. We still don't know what we don't know. This is their first opportunity to play. New Hampshire winning by 10. I like it. I like it a lot. Let's go to the next one. And we're on to our Saturday slate of games. And ladies and gentlemen, I'm just going to tell you it we're going bangers, right? Um, I just recently wrote an article on stats perform that talked about championship defensive DNA and I named three teams in particular that I thought this year had the DNA of a championship caliber team. One of them was Lehigh and the other two you should hold on because they'll be in the next two picks. Lehigh is one of the toughest defenses against the run. They do not let you run on them. They're super stingy overall, but like against the run also, they don't let you put up points. One of the best teams in 2025 when it came to defensive scoring or, scoring defense, right? And so there's not going to be a lot of points coming the other way. Not a lot of points coming from Holy Cross as Holy Cross tries to kind of get back to a level that they were, you know, back when they had, you know, guys like Jalen Coker and those dudes there, right? Back when the Cokeheads were going crazy as they called them. But that's just not right now. Um 13.5 is the line that I like. It's trading right now at 51%. I don't know why it's not higher, why it's not trading at like 59% or 60%. But I'll take it, right? I'll take it and I'll get in early on it because Lehigh whooped up on, you know, whooped up on Holy Cross last year. And Lehigh's on the road. I get it. But we're not talking about them going across country. They were talking about them going up the road. 38-3 win last year. I could have easily looked at the under here and thought about it, but I really think it's going to be hard for Holy Cross to score. I think it's going to be hard for Holy Cross to score. Um they struggled offensively versus Lehigh last year. They lean on their rushing attack and Lehigh does not let people run. I talked about that earlier. But also, when you're talking about returners, I just want you to get this. Lehigh has their starting quarterback returning, all conference, starting running back returning, all conference, and is probably going to be in the mix for the Walter Payton Award this year. All conference tight end. They have four of five starting offensive linemen returning. And those four offensive linemen, each one of them have over 800 snaps to their name. That is ridiculous amounts of experience to have coming back. That's before we start talking about the depth. That's before we start talking about the depth because, you know, even in the FCS, if you're a really good squad and you treat your people well, they don't all just leave for the transfer portal and try to go get money. Some of them come right back. We saw that last night with Youngstown State and Beau Brungard who everybody wanted and he decided to stay at Youngstown State last night by the way. O five touchdowns. That dude is putting his name on the Walter Payton Trophy right now, but not so fast. There's some people over at Lehigh that have something to say about it. 13.5 points. I like that. But also, I like, and this is my first parlay of the day, I not only like them to win by 13.5 points, but I like the game to go under 47.5. That is trading at 59%. Right? That's trading at 59%. A nice little two-piece. Again, I don't think there's going to be much scoring on the Holy Cross side, but I also don't see Lehigh going out there and putting up 48 points. I could see this game being 28-10. I could see this game being 30 like 34 to 34 to 14, right? Not 14,, 34 to 13 or 34 to 10 or 34-3. Like I don't see Holy Cross putting up much resistance today offensively and I don't see Lehigh just coming out and putting up 50 points. So in lieu of that, I like this as my first parlay of the day. Lehigh 13.5 and the under 47.5 points. Mark that one down. Let's look at our next investment. Oo, we're getting spicy. The second team that I talked about in my defensive DNA squads, South Dakota State. There's nobody more ticked off than South Dakota State. Why? Because last year they thought they had what would have been the makings of another championship team and then people got injured, right? right? They dealt with injuries and then they just kind of they kind of mosied their way along. Well, not injuries really, but like they mosied their way along. They looked okay, but they didn't look dominant. And then they got beat in the playoffs. And I think that it they felt like, man, we had more. We had more. But that doesn't really matter here, right? They're playing Stetson. Let me tell you about Stetson last year. Stetson last year started the season struggling against two NAIA teams. Then Stetson played two FCS teams. And I'm not going to say these FCS teams were powerhouses cuz they were not, right? But they were good FCS teams. They lost by 63 points to Chattanooga and they lost by 52 points to Harvard. Those are not Missouri fa Missouri Valley Football Conference level top tier teams. Neither one of those teams would finish in the top five in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. And now with North Dakota State moving on, South Dakota State is the class of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Now they're ticked off. They're playing a team that is known for getting the doors blown off of them. They want to start the season strong and they return a lot of talent on offense and defense, including their quarterback, including defensive linebackers that know how to stop the run. This is going to be a blowout from the beginning. If you invest in this, you might even want to look at where your percentage is at halftime, right? cash out, reinvest in a new number based off of what you believe might happen in the second half of the game and go at it again. Like you may not want to just wait until the end because you know wonky things happen like South Dakota State might decide, hey, you know what? We're up. We're up 42 at halftime. 42-0. Which, by the way, I will not be surprised if that happens. We're up 42-0 at halftime. Second half, we're going to come out, sit the starters, put all the backups in. Things get a little bit wonky. They don't score, but South Dakota State doesn't score either. Or South Dakota State puts up a field goal, right? If you remember yesterday, what game was it? yesterday at halftime. Um it was a blowout and I thought that team would blow them out and it'll come back to my head in a minute. I'm looking for it as we speak. But at halftime, they had already cleared the number and was looking to just like run away with the thing. And then in the second half, North Dakota, that's who it was. North Dakota at halftime, and I predicted a blowout on this, by the way. Um, North Dakota at halftime was up 42 to zero. And then I'm assuming I can only assume they put the backups in the second half. Long Island scored 21 points and North Dakota didn't cover. But at halftime, and this is what's so great about prediction markets, at halftime, you could have cashed out because at halftime, I believe the percentage to win was somewhere close to 100 or to cover was somewhere close to 100. So, you could have pulled out what investment that or what profit that you had made from that investment and just said, ”I'm good.“ So, never be afraid to go in there and see what you can get for your investment. And if it's time to pull out of there, go right ahead and pull out. Nobody's going to be mad at you. South Dakota State's going to blow this one out. We don't have to keep talking about it. This one's going to be a laugher. Let's get to the last one. You thought I was going to leave you and not talk about the defending champions. You know what this feels like? This feels like North Dakota State when they had it rolling. You know what this feels like? This feels like South Dakota State when they had it rolling. This team feels very similar. Remember two seasons ago they lost an extremely close game to North Dakota State with their allworld do everything quarterback and everybody left them for dead when he was leaving. And you know what they did? They circled the wagons, got back on the horse and rode that baby all the way to the championship. The first one in Nashville, by the way. Shout out to Nashville. looking really looking forward to being there this year or this season to watch that FCS championship game. I will be in the building to watch that this season. But what did they do in the offseason? Very similar to South Carolina,, South Dakota State when South Dakota State finally broke through and won it. Everybody came back. Everyone that could, they all came back. And what does that mean? That means that they're loaded and they're hungry. They understand that if they get this one, that puts them in the in that short conversation of greatest squads ever. That puts them in the Appalachian State in the Georgia Southerns, right? It puts them with the South Dakota states. It puts them with the Montana, right? So, they know what's at stake. The quarterback can run the ball. They've got multiple running backs that can run the ball. Effective, right? Effective rushing attack. They've got an all-American candidate at wide receiver. And as they're as Utah Tech has to come up and account for this running game, for this rushing attack, right, they're going to get enticed by the play action because remember with this rushing attack, it's not just I have to run worry about the running back. I have to worry about the running back, then I have to worry about the quarterback running it. So now it's not one person that could get fooled. There's two people that could get fooled. I can guarantee you there's going to be somebody running wide open down the field from Montana State in this Utah Tech game. This one is going to be a blowout. 31.5 is trading at 49% right now. Get there before it's all of a sudden 55 and 62%. Like get there right now. 31.5 trading at 49%. You're going to want to be on it. You're going to want to have your investment the way that you want it to kick off week zero. Listen, I don't know why they call it week zero, but I'm calling it week make your money. I know it's it's lame. It's all right. I don't mind, but make sure that before you get out of here, you go out and you, you know, help us out. Go and head over to the7oracles.com predictionmarketspicks.com and check out everything we're going before we got out of here. Check it out one more time. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, thank you for joining us on Invest in the FCS. We'll be coming to you weekly. We'll see you week two. Make sure you go over to the7oracles.com, especially if you like NFL. Right now, our promotion, NFL Edge, you get 50% off your first subscription. I'm going to let you in on a little secret just for the people who are here. And shout out to all the people that are here right now. 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Until next time, this has been Invest the FCS. I'm Coach Clemons and this has been a Seven Oracles production.