What to do on the Waiver Wire This Week

Good morning! College basketball is back, another week of NFL action is in the books, and the Colts have a new coach.

Phew. Let’s dive into each of those a bit further; why don’t we?

In today’s Winners Club, you’ll find:

Wilson, OBJ and Pickens Among Top Adds for Week 10

Fantasy managers rejoice: There are just four teams on bye for Week 10 after six were idle a week ago. Still, there are quite a few studs your team will be without as the Bengals, Ravens, Patriots and Jets all take the week off.

That means you’ll need replacements for Joe Mixon (fresh off a 55-point outing), Rhamondre Stevenson, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Tee Higgins and more.

Jen Piacenti has plenty of players at each position she recommends you add to fill those roster holes and improve your roster for the stretch run of the season. And there’s one player who might be available in your league, a free agent in real life, and reportedly could be joining a team soon. When he does, you’ll want him on your roster.

Michael Fabiano touched on Tyreek Hill and Davante Adams in his Week 9 takeaways, and Craig Ellenport discussed the surprising number of quarterbacks who led their teams in rushing, highlighted by Justin Fields’s historic outing. The Eagles took over the top spot in the MMQB’s midseason power rankings, and the Bills slid to No. 2 after losing to the Jets.

More news of note: The Colts fired Frank Reich after a 3-5-1 start to the season, the interim coach in Indianapolis will be ESPN analysts and Colts consultant Jeff Saturday, Bills quarterback Josh Allen is being evaluated for an elbow injury he suffered in the Jets game, PJ Walker will start for the Panthers against the Falcons on Thursday despite being benched for Baker Mayfield in a blowout loss, and Saints coach Dennis Allen said after Monday Night Football that he didn’t consider pulling Andy Dalton for Jameis Winston.

Men’s College Hoops Season Has Begun

There was a whole lot of basketball going on yesterday as the NCAA men’s college basketball season got underway. The top-25 teams avoided upsets, though Arkansas Pine Bluff gave No. 14 TCU quite the scare.

Kevin Sweeney went deep to prepare you for the season—363 programs deep. That’s right, he ranked every team from No. 1 North Carolina to dead last Hartford and every team in between across Division I.

He also has a way-too-early bracket projection, and SI’s college basketball writers each made their preseason predictions for the Final Four, national champion, player of the year and more.

So what do the sportsbooks have to say about the college basketball field?

SI’s top-ranked team, UNC, doesn’t have the best odds to win it all, and neither does Kansas, the defending national champion. Gonzaga stands alone as the odds-on favorite, with the remaining blueblood programs falling in line behind them.

Frankie Taddeo broke down the field from a betting perspective, and he touched on the top teams and a few that have recently seen their odds on the rise.

Top 10 Teams by National Championship Odds at SI Sportsbook

Gonzaga +900
Houston +1000
Kentucky +1100
North Carolina +1100
Kansas +1200
Duke +1200
Baylor +1200
Arkansas +1400
UCLA +1600
Arizona +1800

Where NFL Division Odds Stand With Nine Weeks to Go

The season is almost halfway over, and division races are beginning to sort themselves out. The Eagles and Vikings are running away with the NFC East and NFC North, respectively, while the NFC South, AFC North and NFC West are still much too close to call.

Get more NFL odds at SI Sportsbook for the Super Bowl, awards markets, win totals and more.

AFC North

Ravens (6-3): -400
Bengals (5-4): +350
Browns (3-5): +1400
Steelers (2-6): +5000

AFC South

Titans (5-3): -333
Jaguars (3-6): +350
Colts (3-5-1): +700
Texans (1-6-1): +10000

AFC East

Bills (6-2): -654
Dolphins (6-3): +500
Jets (6-3): +1800
Patriots (5-4): +2000

AFC West

Chiefs (6-2): -901
Chargers (5-3): +500
Broncos (3-5): +3000
Raiders (2-6): +4000

NFC North

Vikings (7-1): -5000
Packers (3-6): +2000
Lions (2-6): +4000
Bears (3-6): +5000

NFC South

Buccaneers (4-5): -225
Falcons (4-5): +333
Saints (3-6): +500
Panthers (2-7): +3500

NFC East

Eagles (8-0): -500
Cowboys (6-2): +450
Giants (6-2): +1000
Commanders (4-5): +12500

NFC West

49ers (4-4): -137
Seahawks (6-3): +160
Rams (3-5): +800
Cardinals (3-6): +2800

In Other News

2023 World Series Futures Odds: The Astros won it all just a few days ago against the Phillies and find themselves with the second-best odds (+500) to win the championship next season behind only the Dodgers (+700). The Braves (+800), Blue Jays (+900) and Yankees (+900) round out the top five teams.

Bucks Stand Atop NBA Power Rankings: Milwaukee is off to the best start in franchise history and again holds the No. 1 spot. Meanwhile, teams like the Warriors, 76ers, Clippers and Nets are much further down amid slow starts.

MLB Releases Awards Finalists: Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani headline the list of finalists for MVP, Cy Young, Manager of the Year and Rookie of the Year. The winners will be revealed beginning next week.

Thanks for reading Winners Club! I’ll be back in your inbox Thursday morning. Until then.

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