Ohio State left little doubt which was the top school at the 2016 draft as the Buckeyes had a record 10 players taken in the first three rounds. That included two of the first 4 players selected this year – DE Joey Bosa and RB Zeke Elliott who went 3rd and 4th respectively to San Diego and Dallas – and 5 of the first 20 picks in last Thursday’s opening round. Overall, Ohio State had 12 players selected this past weekend, although that was still a couple of picks fewer than the Buckeyes’ record haul of 14 in 2004. Ohio State was followed by Clemson which had 9 players and UCLA with 8, while Notre Dame, Alabama and Florida had 7 each. At the same time, Baylor had 6 picks, while each of Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Michigan State, Mississippi, Penn State, Stanford, Texas Christian and West Virginia had 5 players selected.
Despite Ohio State’s big weekend, the SEC again led all conferences with 51 players selected, although the Big Ten made it close with 47. Indeed, that figure represents a major improvement from recent years when they were stuck down around the 30s. Indeed, even subtracting Ohio State’s 12 picks, the rest of the Big Ten teams had more picks this year (35) than the whole conference had in 2015 when 34 players from the Big Ten were selected.
In fact, the SEC and Big Ten kind of left the rest of the major conferences in their wake at the 2016 draft. The Pac-12 finished third with 32 picks, although 9 of those came in the final round, while the ACC had 26 – way down from 47 in 2015 and 42 in 2014 – tied for 4th among the major conferences with the Big 12. Meanwhile, the American Athletic Conference and Conference USA tied for the lead among non-Power 5 leagues with ten picks apiece, while the Mountain West had 9, the MAC six and the Sun Belt three. At the same, 8 players were selected from the major Independents with Notre Dame accounting for 7 and Navy one.
Of course, it is no surprise that the overall draft was pretty much dominated by FBS schools. Indeed, 90% of all players selected at this year’s where from former D1A programs with the Power 5 conferences (plus Notre Dame) accounting for just 75% of all picks. At the same time, though, the lower levels weren’t totally shut out. In fact, 25 players – about 10% of the total – of players from the lower divisions were selected this past weekend, including 21 from FCS schools, two from DII programs, and two from international programs.
In fact, the number of players from non-FBS programs was actually up somewhat from 2015 when just 20 players from the lower levels were selected. And needless to say after North Dakota State QB Carson Wentz was selected 2nd overall on Thursday night, the wait for lower level schools wasn’t all that long. Indeed, Wentz was the highest non-D1A player drafted since Dallas selected DE Ed ‘Too Tall’ Jones with the #1 pick overall way back in 1974. For the record, two other non-FBS players –Noah Spence who was selected with the 39th pick and Samford DB James Bradberry, taken 62nd – were selected within the first three rounds. In contrast, there have been recent years where the lower levels had to wait for until the 3rd day to get their first pick.
