Buckeyes get 2-fer; SEC, B10 dominance grows … After winning last year’s CFP national championship, Ohio State doubled up by leading all schools with 14 players selected at the 2025 draft. The Buckeyes edged out Georgia, which had 13 picks, while Texas had 12, Oregon had 10, Mississippi had 8 and Michigan, Alabama, LSU, Miami and Florida had 7 apiece. And one does not need an advanced stats degree to note that of the top ten schools at this year’s draft, 9 belong to either the SEC or BIG TEN.
That adds further evidence to the direction that college football appears to be headed, that is the growing dominance of those two conferences. In Thursday’s opening round, for example, 3/4 of the players selected were from the SEC or BIG TEN and that trend continue through the rest of the draft. Indeed, overall, 150 of the 257 players selected this weekend – almost 60% – were from these two conferences. That included 80 from the SEC and 70 from BIG TEN. Of course, the SEC has had the most players drafted for years, but its total generally ranged around 60 per year thru the past couple of decades, while there was an even bigger increase in the B10’s total from around 40 per year to 70 this year. Indeed, just last year, the SEC/BIG TEN combination accounted for under 40% of all players drafted. Needless, to say a good part of that shift, though, reflects the fact that the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma to its lineup this year, while the BIG TEN added the 4 west coast PAC-12 teams.
For the record, the ACC basically held serve this year with 42 players selected while the Big XII had 31, as the 4 power conferences (along with Notre Dame) accounted for almost 90% of all players selected this weekend. At the same time, 17 players were selected from the non-power 5 FBS conferences including 6 from both the Mountain West and AAC and 4 from the MAC, with just one each from the Sun Belt, CUSA and PAC-12 remnants, about the same number as last year. In contrast, just 8 players were selected from the FCS ranks, down 11 last year and barely 1/4 the total from earlier this decade. If the FCSers had any consolation its that they did have a first rounder as former North Dakota State OT Grey Zabel was taken 18th overall by Seattle.
