LSA Superstar

May 17th, 2014 at 5:14 PM ^

This is awesome obviously but how many played in 06 mich/osu? We played this game in college once and the number of players we came up with was sizable.

Mitch Cumstein

May 17th, 2014 at 7:05 PM ^

Those OU players didn't look too overwhelmed playing a team from a superior conference. Again, not saying the SEC isn't the best conference, the point is does that really matter when two teams play? When was the last game you saw where an entire conference played against another conference? This conference vs conference banter is something espn invented to increase interest from fans of teams that suck. So they would have something to root for.

Gulogulo37

May 17th, 2014 at 10:48 PM ^

Right, blame the media. You don't see fans talking about conference superiority all the time in forums. Ya know, like your 2 posts in this thread...

There's no denying the SEC is better than the B1G, but I don't really care. I'm more concerned about Michigan. I believe Stewart Mandel correctly pointed out that people didn't really talk about which conference is the best until the BCS started.

LSAClassOf2000

May 17th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^

I was working on these figures for an upcoming diary, but in the last three drafts, 154 SEC players have been drafted regardless of position, but it is definitely interesting to note that nearly 20% of them played at some juncture in a single game in 2011. That's something I would definitely say does not happen very often. 

MichiganMan14

May 17th, 2014 at 5:10 PM ^

11 drafted in 13. 7 drafted in 14. 10-13 projected in 15. Nobody is touching that right now.

MichiganMan14

May 17th, 2014 at 5:19 PM ^

...and built upon it. Big athletes that can move. The SEC and the ACC are aiming to be bigger and faster than the competition. Back in the day of the Miami/FSU rivalry...the talent on the field was mesmerizing. The same can be said for the 06/07 Michigan vs. Ohio games. It's definitely pretty crazy to think about 28 NFL guys on the field at one day in a college game though. Talent wins championships and the current college football trends reinforce that.

Perkis-Size Me

May 17th, 2014 at 6:43 PM ^

Talent is a big factor, but don't discount coaching. Dantonio beat the almighty, unstoppable Urban Meyer and won the Rose Bowl with a bunch of recruits that weren't considered talented enough by the Alabama's, USC's, and LSU's of the world.

Talent can only get you so far by itself. If you don't have superb coaching, good luck getting anywhere.

MichiganMan14

May 18th, 2014 at 12:12 AM ^

Dantonio took an 11 win Sparty team up against a 10 win Bama team 3 years ago and got slaughtered. The speed of the elite southern teams is on another level. Coaching is obviously extremely important but you have to have the tools to work with to be successful.

M-Dog

May 18th, 2014 at 9:14 AM ^

All the more reason to hope for NCAA rule changes to allow players to be paid.

It is hard enough to compete with the southern teams in recruiting because of the weather.  The fact that they have a culture of acceptance about paying players under the table makes it even harder.  

Some NCAA rule changes and a little Global Warming could level the playing field a little bit.

 

ThadMattasagoblin

May 17th, 2014 at 5:23 PM ^

This reenforces recruiting rankings. LSU, Alabama, and FSU have been killing it on the recruiting trail. We need to get back to where our 2012 and 2013 classes were if we want to catch up.

Jacoby

May 17th, 2014 at 6:32 PM ^

I'd be curious to know how our '97 championship defense compares, both in terms of how many players went to the nfl, and how long they played.

ThadMattasagoblin

May 17th, 2014 at 7:04 PM ^

Both coaching and recruiting count. You can't win a natty without recruiting a top 10 class (nobody's done it yet), but you also need a good coach. Notre Dame has had great classes and hasn't done anything. Same with Texas.

M-Dog

May 18th, 2014 at 9:03 AM ^

They did it with one special guy in Vince Young, the same way Auburn did it with Cam Newton.

Problem is, that's not a replicatable strategy.  Those guys are so damn hard to find.

M-Dog

May 18th, 2014 at 9:09 AM ^

The SEC has elite talent to waste, and they do.

If I'm an FCS school like Deleware, I'd make a living by just hanging around SEC schools like Alabama and LSU and sweet talking all those elite recruits they oversigned into signing up with me and playing right away as soon as it becomes clear that they've been abandoned.

There's dozens of these guys every year that need a home, and they're still NFL caliber.