Draft hilites Growing dominance of power schools … One of the underlying stories from the past two drafts has been the growing dominance of the of the so-called Power-5 programs. This past weekend, for example, 87% of all players selected at the 2024 draft were from a Power 5 school or Notre Dame. And that is up from 80% just a year earlier. Surprisingly, the difference was accounted for almost exclusively in adramatic drop in the number of players selected from non-Power 5 conference teams. In fact, just 19 players were selected this year from the so-called group of 5 conferences, literally half the number from the previous year when 36 prospects from the other FBS conferences had been selected.
Still, 94% of all players selected last week were from an FBS school, while barely 6% – just 14 players in total – were from outside the FBS ranks and just 11 were from FCS or lower U.S. programs. In fact, the FCS/DII total was roughly half the figure it was just two years ago when 23 players selected in 2022 came from outside the ranks of FBS programs. Maybe the only modicum of solace for the smaller schools is the fact that two players from their ranks – Houston Christian DE Jalyk Hunt and Yale OT Kiran Amegadjie – were second day picks with Hunt going to Philadelphia and Amegadjie to the Chicago with 3rd round picks.
At the same time, 3 international players were selected on Saturday including UBC OG Giovanni Muni, whom Detroit actually traded up in the 4th to acquire, and OG Travis Clayton, a former English rugby player who was taken in the 7th round by Buffalo. For the record, Muni was just the 7th Canadian from a Canadian university ever selected at the NFL draft, and the first since Dr. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif who was selected by Kansas City in 2014. Also for the record, a total of 4 Canadians were selected this weekend along with Muni including OG Isaiah Adams, a 3rd round pick by Arizona, and TEs Theo Johnson (a 4th to the NY Giants) and Tanner McLachlan (a 6th by Cincinnati). That tied last year’s record of 4 Canadians being selected in a single draft year. The other ‘international’ player selected this weekend was CB Qwan’Tez Stiggers, the CFL defensive rookie of the year last fall with Toronto, who was selected in the NY Jets in the 5th round.
Also to absolutely no one’s surprise, the SEC once again had the most players of any conference selected at the 2024 draft. Indeed, it was the 18th straight year in which the SEC had the most players selected in a draft. Overall, the SEC had 59 players taken at this weekend’s draft, down slightly from 62 in 2023 and 65 in the previous two years, but still well ahead of the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC which were bunched with 43, 42, and 41 picks respectively, while the Big XII followed with 31. In contrast, among the other conferences, the Sun Belt had 6 picks, the American Athletic had 5, and CUSA had 3, while the Mountain West and MAC had only 2 apiece. Note, though, that the MAC’s Quinyon Mitchell, taken 22nd overall by Philadelphia, was the only non-Power 5 player taken in this year’s opening round.
However, while the SEC once again led all conferences in picks at the 2024 draft, national champion Michigan actually had the most players selected from any one school. Indeed, 13 former Wolverines were selected this past weekend, the 4th highest total from one program ever. Michigan was followed by Texas with 11, Alabama, LSU and Washington with 10 apiece, Georgia, Oregon and Penn State with 8 each and Notre Dame and Southern California with 7 each. In fact, those 10 schools accounted for over 35% of all players drafted this past weekend. In the end, one can see why the NFL is quietly pushing the idea of a ‘super’ conference format for college football to ensure that the top prospects play other top prospects every week.
