College Teams & Conferences That Had Most Players In The Draft

The 2020 NFL draft is now done and it’s time to start recapping some of what happened. There will be other stories throughout the week here at Winners & Winners but today I will be taking a look at how the college conferences and teams fared in the draft. In all, 96 teams across all three divisions of the NCAA had at least one player selected.

Every year you can count on one thing and that is the Southeastern Conference will put more players in the NFL than any other conference in the nation, and that again was the case this year. The SEC put in a whopping 63 players and that lead the nation for the 14th year in a row. The record for most players from a team is 14, which the LSU Tigers tied this year. They began with Joe Burrow being selected first and didn’t stop until TE Stephen Sullivan was taken with the 251st overall pick by the Seattle Seahawks. The Bayou Bengals had five players drafted in the first round alone. That’s what happens when you win the National Title, everyone wants your players.

The Big 10 was next with 48 players drafted. Yes, they were 15 behind the SEC. 2nd behind LSU was both Ohio State and Michigan, which each had 10 teams drafted. Ohio State started off with a bang as DE Chase Young (Washington) was drafted 2nd overall and they went all the way to the 235th pick when DE Jashon Cornell was taken by the Detroit Lions. Ohio State also had the 3rd pick overall with CB Jeff Okudah going to the Lions and the 19th pick with CB Damon Arnette going to the Raiders.

The Michigan Wolverines did not have the year they were hoping for but still, they had some very good players on their team. The Wolverines had 10 players draft overall and it began with C Cesar Ruiz, who was taken with the 24th pick overall by the New Orleans Saints. He with their only player that went in the first round while DE Josh Uche (Patriots) was their only player taken in the 2nd round. Michigan had a lot of late-round draft picks as their final eight players taken were from the 143rd pick (4th round) on.

The Alabama Crimson Tide had just nine players taken in this year’s draft and that was a bit of a shocker. I say “just’ nine players because they had 57 players who were eligible for this draft and many felt that Bama could have anywhere from 15 to 19 selected. They only had nine. Four of them went in the first round, three went in the 2nd and two went in the 3rd. Alabama had none selected after that. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (5th, Dolphins), OT Jedrick Wills Jr (10th, Browns), WR Henry Ruggs III (12th, Raiders), and WR Jerry Jeudy (15th, Broncos) were their four 1st round picks.

Let’s talk about a few more. Clemson, Florida, Georgia, and Utah all were next with seven each. The Clemson Tigers had two players taken in the first round, including LB Isaiah Simmons, who went 8th to the Arizona Cardinals and DB A.J. Terrell, who went to the Atlanta Falcons at number 19. The Georgia Bulldogs had OL Andrew Thomas (4th, Giants) and OL Isaiah Wilson (29th, Tennessee) taken in the first round. They also had Mr. Irrelevant, who is the last player taken in the entire draft. That player was LB Tae Crowder, who was selected by the New York Football Giants. The Florida Gators had DB CJ Henderson (9th, Jacksonville) as their lone player to be taken in the first round.

The Utah Utes are from the Pac-12 and that league was 3rd in the conference rankings with 32 players selected. Oregon was closest to Utah in the Pac-12 with four players taken while California, Oregon State, and UCLA each had three. Utah did not have a player taken in the first round while Oregon did with QB Justin Herbert (6th, LA Chargers), USC did with OL Austin Jackson (18th, Miami), and Arizona State did with WR Brandon Aiyuk (25th, San Francisco).

Below are how the conferences stacked up In the draft.

SEC -- 63

Big Ten -- 48

Pac-12 -- 32

ACC -- 27

Big 12 -- 21

AAC -- 17

Conference USA -- 10

Mountain West -- 10

Independent -- 9

Sun Belt -- 7

FCS -- 6

Division II/III -- 3

MAC -- 2

Below are how the teams stacked up.

LSU -- 14

Michigan -- 10

Ohio State -- 10

Alabama -- 9

Clemson -- 7

Florida -- 7

Georgia -- 7

Utah -- 7

Auburn -- 6

Notre Dame -- 6

Minnesota -- 5

Mississippi State -- 5

Iowa -- 5

Penn State -- 5

TCU -- 5

Baylor -- 4

Miami (FL) -- 4

Oklahoma -- 4

Oregon -- 4

South Carolina -- 4

Temple -- 4

Wisconsin -- 4

Boise State -- 3

Cal -- 3

Louisiana -- 3

Memphis -- 3

Oregon State -- 3

Texas -- 3

UCLA -- 3

Appalachian State -- 2

Arkansas -- 2

Arizona State -- 2

Charlotte -- 2

Colorado -- 2

FIU -- 2

Fresno State -- 2

Georgia Southern -- 2

Kentucky -- 2

Louisiana Tech -- 2

Marshall -- 2

Maryland -- 2

Michigan State -- 2

Missouri -- 2

Nebraska -- 2

North Carolina -- 2

NC State -- 2

Purdue -- 2

Stanford -- 2

Syracuse -- 2

Tennessee -- 2

Texas A&M -- 2

Texas Tech -- 2

Tulane -- 2

Tulsa -- 2

USC -- 2

Virginia -- 2

Wake Forest -- 2

Washington -- 2

West Virginia -- 2

Wyoming -- 2

Ball State --1

Boston College -- 1

Cincinnati -- 1

Colorado -- 1

Dayton -- 1

FAU -- 1

Florida State -- 1

Georgia Tech -- 1

Hawaii -- 1

Houston -- 1

Indiana -- 1

James Madison -- 1

Kansas -- 1

Lenoir-Rhyne -- 1

Liberty -- 1

Louisville -- 1

Miami (OH) -- 1

Navy -- 1

New Mexico State -- 1

North Dakota State -- 1

Pitt -- 1

Rhode Island --1

San Diego State -- 1

SMU -- 1

Southern Illinois -- 1

Southern Miss -- 1

St. Johns (Minn.) -- 1

Tennessee State -- 1

UCF -- 1

UConn -- 1

UMass -- 1

Utah State -- 1

Vanderbilt -- 1

Virginia Tech -- 1

Washburn -- 1

Washington State -- 1

Team and Conference Rankings are courtesy of CBS Sports.