Comparing The Volume Of Contribution - Big Ten And SEC In The NFL Draft: 1990-2014

Submitted by LSAClassOf2000 on

COMPARING BIG TEN AND SEC VOLUME IN THE NFL DRAFT: 1990-2014

In my last diary, someone brought up a question regarding how the numbers present there for the Big Ten might compare to the numbers of the SEC over the same period. This particular diary shall endeavor to explore that question.

Fortunately, this was a relatively easy thing to do, thanks to the site DraftHistory.com, which has not only the year-by-year data but also round and position for each player. A future diary will likely take a specific team or two – Michigan being one of them – and attempt to devise a weighting system which will account for where the bulk of the players were taken in the draft and not simply look at how many came from a given team.

So, basically, I did a similar summary to start as in the Big Ten diary:

TEAM

AVG.

% OF TOTAL

NO. OF PLAYERS

TENNESSEE

5.28

11.78%

132

FLORIDA

5.12

11.42%

128

GEORGIA

4.64

10.35%

116

LSU

4.52

10.08%

113

ALABAMA

4.48

9.99%

112

TEXAS A&M

3.88

8.65%

97

AUBURN

3.38

7.49%

84

SOUTH CAROLINA

2.56

5.71%

64

ARKANSAS

2.36

5.26%

59

MISS. STATE

2.28

5.08%

57

OLE MISS

1.96

4.37%

49

MISSOURI

1.64

3.66%

41

KENTUCKY

1.60

3.57%

40

VANDERBILT

1.16

2.59%

29

That is not a misfire in Excel. Those of us old enough to remember when Tennessee was hot shit in a good way, if you will, know exactly why they are there on the top. The 1990s were extremely kind to Tennessee, and the early 2000s were pretty pleasant for them as well.

In some way, however, Big Ten and SEC success in terms of the number of players sent has been similar. For starters, the SEC has only sent 30 more players in total over 25 years, and as with the Big Ten, the five most prolific contributors account for about half of the entire conference total. What does that show? Conference will be conferences and there will always be an upper tier of teams that enjoy longer periods of sustained success than others.

As you might note in the graphs below, the mix between the Big Ten and the SEC shows a fair number of SEC teams clustering towards the top and quite a few Big Ten teams closer to the middle in this comparison. I will admit that this is what I thought might happen, so it didn’t shock me. In terms of volume contribution, however, the Big Ten still comes out on top with Ohio State sending 5.48 players per year on average, with Nebraska (admitted a late-comer to the Big Ten) in fourth at 4.92 players per year on average. Michigan rings in at 9th overall in this comparison, which is still a decent showing at 4.20 players per year.

Here’s the yearly average:

 photo NFLSECBTAvg_zps2773b7e1.png

Here’s the total contribution over 25 years:

 photo NFLDraftSECBTTotal_zps1697a26f.png

If you want to go to the NFL, don’t go to Vanderbilt….or Rutgers for that matter.

Here is the grand average for the SEC and Big Ten compared year-to-year. The differential between the averages has resulted in a net positive for the Big Ten on 13 occasions, although typically not by much. In other words, the two conference were rather competitive on a volume basis for talent sent to the NFL in this period.

 photo NFLDraftSECBTAvgCompare_zpsfa40aa53.png

Here are select individual teams in the SEC compared to the conference average year-to-year:

Alabama:

 photo NFLDraftAlabama_zps74f82194.png

Auburn:

 photo NFLDraftAuburn_zps3a68b431.png

LSU:

 photo NFLDraftLSU_zpse64bd40b.png

Tennessee:

 photo NFLDraftTennessee_zpsf8c95a6e.png

Florida:

 photo NFLDraftFlorida_zps2cdabf5a.png

 

Comments

Avon Barksdale

July 8th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^

Glad I requested this. I'm not sure why, but I'm somewhat surprised to see Penn State ahead of us in the B1G. Living in TN, I'm not that surprised that Tennessee is close to the top; however, it did surprise me they were ahead of Florida.

In other news, it's nice to see that Maryland and Rutgers both take advantage of their fertile recruiting grounds. /s

MGoBlue24

July 9th, 2014 at 10:14 PM ^

I wonder if there is a halo effect that comes with entering a big conference, or a respected one at least, and whether it helped Penn State or will help Nebraska, Rutgers, or Maryland.