Power Ranking College Football Conferences by Their NFL Representation
The SEC once again dominated the NFL draft in terms of conference representation, with its 54 selections leading the way for the ninth straight year. Even without Tennessee and Vanderbilt contributing to that effort, the league provided pro teams with more than 21 percent of its next batch of future stars.
Considering how long the SEC has been performing at this level, draft-wise, it would stand to reason it's the conference with the most players on NFL roster, too, right? Yes, but its edge in that department is not as significant as you'd expect.
Not including this latest batch of draft picks or the undrafted free agents that teams have signed since Saturday, nearly 1,700 players from the 10 FBS conferences are on active NFL rosters. We've broken this down by league to rank them in order of how well represented each is, also taking into account All-Pro selections that came from each league.
NOTE: Active roster figures are based on information available on NFL.com as of Wednesday, May 6.
10. Sun Belt
1 of 10
2015 draftees: 3
Players on active rosters: 45
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 0
The Sun Belt Conference has become somewhat of a way station in FBS, a league where programs wishing to move up from the FCS ranks usually end up as well as the place that Conference USA ends up turning to to replenish its roster after getting raided by other leagues. That means the current lineup doesn't have much tradition, nor does it have much to show for itself in the NFL.
Almost every NFL team has an alum from a current Sun Belt team on its roster, but most don't have more than a single player. The notable exceptions are the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars with four each.
Carolina added to that number by taking Texas State linebacker David Mayo, one of two Bobcats drafted this year (along with cornerback Craig Mager, to the San Diego Chargers).
9. Conference USA
2 of 10
2015 draftees: 6
Players on active rosters: 65
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 0
If we counted alumni from schools that used to be in Conference USA, the league would have a far greater pro footprint. But the league that has nearly as many former football members (12) as it does current (13) continues to have its lineup shuffled and therefore isn't very prevalent in the pros.
Ironically, the only C-USA school that had more than one player drafted this year was UAB, which infamously shuttered its program after the 2014 season. We're still counting ex-Blazers in the NFL as C-USA alums, since the school didn't go to another conference and is still in the league for other sports, or else their tally of pro players would be even smaller.
There's a former C-USA player on all but a handful of NFL teams, with the Oakland Raiders having the greatest concentration with five (from five different teams).
8. Mid-American
3 of 10
2015 draftees: 4
Players on active rosters: 79
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 1
The Mid-American Conference doesn't send a lot of players to the NFL, but the ones who do make it in the pros tend to have some pretty good careers. Whether 2015 draftees like Miami, Ohio cornerback Quinten Rollins (taken by the Green Bay Packers in the second round) can reach the level of stardom that fellow Redhawk Ben Roethlisberger has achieved remains to be seen, however.
Besides Roethlisberger, other notable MAC stars include ex-Central Michigan wide receiver Antonio Brown (Pittsburgh Steelers), Kent State receiver Julian Edelman (New England Patriots) and Central Michigan tackle Eric Fisher, who was taken first overall by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013.
Considering the success that Brown and Roethlisberger have had for the Steelers, it shouldn't be a surprise their roster includes 10 players from eight different MAC schools and their 2015 draft haul included defensive tackle Leterrius Walton from Central Michigan.
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7. Mountain West
4 of 10
2015 draftees: 10
Players on active rosters: 93
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 2
Thanks to Boise State, the Mountain West has moved toward the top of the second tier of FBS conferences when it comes to performance at the collegiate level. The Broncos are an integral part of the league's representation at the NFL level, though it's not a one-team show.
After having three players drafted in 2014 and six in 2012, only running back Jay Ajayi was taken from Boise last weekend.
Fresno State actually had the most draftees of any Mountain West team in 2015, with three, and according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN the Bulldogs are one of just 26 teams (and two outside of the power leagues) to have at least one player drafted every year since 2006.
The Denver Broncos, fittingly, have the most love for the MWC, with 10 players from that league on their current roster before drafting Colorado State offensive lineman Ty Sambrailo in the second round and signing Boise State receiver Matt Miller to a free-agent deal.
6. American
5 of 10
2015 draftees: 11
Players on active rosters: 123
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 3
The conference formerly known as the Big East was stripped of its power-conference status when the BCS ended, which made sense since most of the teams from that old league weren't around when it changed to the American Athletic Conference.
The current lineup is mostly ex-Conference USA teams, albeit ones that have managed to send a decent number of players into the pros for what's no longer considered a power league.
All but one NFL team (the Arizona Cardinals) has at least one player who played for an existing AAC team, while the New York Giants have six and added a seventh over the weekend in the form of sixth-round pick Geremy Davis from Connecticut.
Notable AAC alums in the NFL include Kansas City Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman (Connecticut), Green Bay Packers guard Josh Sitton (UCF) and New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski (Memphis), all of whom were second-team All-Pro choices last year.
5. Big 12
6 of 10
2015 draftees: 25
Players on active rosters: 149
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 9
It hasn't been a very good year, reputation-wise, for the Big 12. After going all-out with its "One True Champion" slogan, only to declare Baylor and TCU as co-champs despite a head-to-head-win for Baylor, it was the lone power conference left out of the initial College Football Playoffs.
Then came last weekend, when the Big 12 managed just two first-round picks and only 25 draft selections overall. This comes five years after the league saw its players go off the board after five of the first six picks in 2010.
While the Big 12's overall representation is lower than any other power league, this figure should be taken with two grains of salt. First, the conference has fewer teams than the others, with 10 compared to the 14 found in the ACC, Big Ten and SEC and the Pac-12's dozen, and it was the league that saw the most defections during recent realignment.
But where the league lacks in overall numbers—only the Dallas Cowboys, with 10, have double-digit former Big 12 players—it more than makes up for it in top-tier talent. Nine ex-Big 12 stars were on the NFL's All-Pro team in 2014, tied with the ACC for the most of any conference.
4. Big Ten
7 of 10
2015 draftees: 35
Players on active rosters: 257
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 8
The Big Ten ranked fourth in players drafted this year, and that included just five members of defending national champion Ohio State with just two going in the first three rounds. That won't be the case next year, when Bleacher Report's Adam Kramer estimates that as many as eight Buckeyes could be first-round picks in 2016.
The league did have three first-rounders this year, and 22 of the 32 NFL teams selected at least one Big Ten standout last weekend. One of those that did not was the New England Patriots, despite having 11 picks, but that might be because they already have 20 on the roster.
Seven different Big Ten schools are represented on the Patriots, including an astounding five Rutgers alums. Bill Belichick and his staff have a keen eye for Midwestern talent, and not just because they landed Michigan's Tom Brady in the sixth round 15 years ago.
Implementing a decidedly non-Big Ten scouting personnel strategy are the Detroit Lions, who only had three players from that conference signed before they drafted Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah and Rutgers' Michael Burton. The Lions have no players from either Michigan or Michigan State yet have one each from Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Division II Wayne State of Detroit.
3. Pac-12
8 of 10
2015 draftees: 39
Players on active rosters: 248
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 8
One-fourth of the Pac-12's schools failed to have anybody drafted last weekend, as no players from Arizona, California or Colorado heard their names called. The league still managed to finish with the third-most draftees overall, and that falls in line with how it's represented on current NFL rosters.
Aside from Buffalo and Detroit, which each have four players from out West (not including Detroit's third-round pick from this year, Stanford cornerback Alex Carter), the rest of the NFL's teams average about eight players apiece.
Not surprisingly, the Philadelphia Eagles lead the way with 18 including nine members of coach Chip Kelly's former team, Oregon. But the Eagles also have players from seven other Pac-12 schools, plus they signed undrafted free agents from two others, and Kelly used his first two draft picks on league studs Nelson Agholor of USC and Eric Rowe of Utah.
Second-most is the Miami Dolphins, which have 16 former Pac-12 players and added another over the weekend in Arizona State offensive tackle Jamil Douglas.
Former USC coach Pete Carroll has 14 former Pac-12 players on his Seattle Seahawks roster—along with three more drafted or signed last weekend—but only three of them are ex-Trojans, while the Minnesota Vikings also have 14 and used a draft pick for the second year in a row on a UCLA linebacker by selecting Eric Kendricks in the second round after getting Anthony Barr in 2014.
2. ACC (including Notre Dame)
9 of 10
2015 draftees: 48
Players on active rosters: 312
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 9
The ACC might have gotten a knock the past few years as being Florida State and everybody else, but that perception hasn't been shared by NFL teams. While FSU did have 11 players drafted last weekend and a record 29 in the past three years, the Seminoles are far from the only reason the ACC is the second-best league when it comes to pro representation.
If you include Notre Dame—which is a member of the ACC in all other sports and is a pseudo-member in football, playing four or five league games per year—then this conference has alums pretty well spread out across the NFL.
The Buffalo Bills lead the way with 18 active ACC alums, and that's not including the five draft picks (out of six it had) that it used guys who starred in the conference last season.
Only the NFC East seems to be averse to ACC talent, as that division has three of the worst-represented roster for the league. The Philadelphia Eagles have just four players plus an undrafted free agent and seventh-round project Brian Mihalik on the roster while the Washington Redskins have five, but draft picks Jamison Crowder of Duke and Kyshoen Jarrett should help the ACC's cause.
The Dallas Cowboys have only six active ACC/Notre Dame alums, but that includes 2014 first-round pick Zack Martin. The former Notre Dame guard was a first-team All-Pro selection as a rookie.
1. SEC
10 of 10
2015 draftees: 54
Players on active rosters: 331
2014 NFL All-Pro selections (first and second team): 8
It should come as no surprise that the SEC is atop this list, with it making up about 20 percent of the NFL's current personnel. When the 2014 regular season began, four of the five best-represented schools were from that league and SEC schools comprised the most—or tied for the most—players at seven individual positions, per the NFL.
"If you want to play in the NFL, you should probably head to an SEC school," Eric Kay of CBS Sports wrote. "Then again, if you're playing for an SEC school, you're probably there for that reason."
What is somewhat of a shock is how few SEC alums are on some rosters.
The Indianapolis Colts will have no more than seven SEC players in 2015, assuming all five active members remain and both sixth-round pick Amarlo Herrera of Georgia and undrafted free agent Quan Bray of Auburn make the cut.
Despite being deep in the heart of SEC country, the Atlanta Falcons only have seven signed for 2015, plus two undrafted free agents and second-round pick Jalen Collins of LSU, while the New York Jets currently have eight, not including sixth-round pick Jarvis Harrison of Texas A&M.
On the other end of the spectrum are the Cincinnati Bengals, which list 22 former SEC players on their roster and used two of their nine draft picks on SEC guys including first-round selection Cedric Ogbuehi of Texas A&M.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
