SEC draft domination continued thru second day … The SEC dominated the opening round of this year’s draft when players from the conference made up almost half – 15 of 32 – of those selected in the first round. And that trend continued yesterday when 25 more players from the SEC were selected bringing the conference’s total to 40, a new record for the most all-time picks by one conference through three rounds. Not surprisingly, reigning national champion LSU and Alabama led the way for the conference with 10 and 9 players selected thru three rounds respectively. Continuing the record setting theme, LSU’s three-round total tied the record for most players from one program selected through the first three rounds previously set by Ohio State in 2016. In fact, between them, LSU and Alabama had more players selected than any other conference! The Big Ten ended up a distant second to the SEC with 17 picks through the first three rounds, while both the Pac-12 and Big XII had 12 players selected and the ACC had just 8. However, the draft still remains pretty much the domain of the Power 5 conferences with the SEC, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-12, ACC, and Notre Dame accounting for 92 of the 106 players selected to date. Of the remainder, 11 came from non-Power 5 D1 schools, while there were two taken from FCS programs and one from a lower division. That one was former Lenoir-Rhyne DB Kyle Dugger who was taken 37th overall by New England, while the FCS players drafted were Southern Illinois DB Jeremy Chinn who was selected by Carolina with the final pick – #64 – of the second round, while New Orleans took Dayton TE Adam Trautman with the second last pick of the third round, the 105th pick overall.
