The NFL’s 53-man rosters were set on Sunday and Alabama led all schools with 56 former players on an active 2019 NFL roster, not including players who are on injured reserve, the physically unable to perform list, suspended or on a practice squad.

We’ve previously analyzed the relationships in college football between the financial investment in recruiting and recruiting class rankings, and recruiting class rankings and wins, and now we’re looking at how recruiting class rankings compare to the number of NFL players college football programs produce.

There’s no perfect way to analyze which programs produce the most pros relative to the talent they enroll but we’re going to be transparent in our methodology.

This study only looks at the 1,696 players who were one of the 32 active NFL rosters as of Tuesday afternoon.

Since college football players must spend at least three years in school before declaring for the NFL draft, the youngest rookies in the NFL this season were members of the 2016 recruiting class.

Therefore, our analysis started with the 2016 recruiting class and we worked backward from there.

In total, we analyzed 10 years of recruiting data (2007 to ’16), using the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Nearly 93 percent of active NFL players (1,573 of 1,696) have nine or fewer years of experience in the league, which is why we looked at 10 years of recruiting data from 2007 to 2016.

In the scatter plot below, we graphed every FBS program based on its average recruiting class ranking over that 10-year span compared to the number of active NFL players it has produced.

UL Monroe and UNLV have the unfortunate distinction of being the only FBS programs without an active NFL player.

Here’s a list of the top 15 schools in terms of the number of active NFL players produced:

1. Alabama: 56
2. Ohio State: 43
T3. Florida: 35
T3. LSU: 35
T5. Florida State: 32
T5: Miami (FL): 32
7. Oklahoma: 31
8. Georgia: 30
T9. Penn State: 28
T9. Texas A&M: 28
T9. Wisconsin: 28
12. Clemson: 27
T13. Auburn: 26
T13. Stanford: 26
T15: Notre Dame: 25
T15. USC: 25
T15: Washington: 25

At the bottom of this story, there’s a chart with the 1-to-130 rankings of the number of NFL players produced by every FBS school.

Over the 10-year period examined, 20 schools averaged a top-25 recruiting class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. That means there’s roughly five spots available in a given year for the other 111 FBS programs to compete for a top-25 class and usually those other schools are competing for spots in the 20s.

The chart below lists those 20 programs in descending order of the number of active NFL players they produced, then by their average recruiting class ranking from 2007 to ’16.

In an effort to measure player development efficiency, the last column shows the percentage of the number of active NFL players a college football program has produced compared to the number of blue-chip recruits (4- or 5-star recruits) it enrolled from 2007 to ’16.

This admittedly isn’t a perfect metric to analyze which schools best capitalize on the high-level talent they enroll because it doesn’t account for players who transferred in or out of a program, or players from those recruiting classes who made the NFL but are no longer in the league or are currently on the physically unable to perform list/on injured reserve/suspended.

But to some degree, it can measure what schools have churned out the most pros relative to how many elite prospects they’ve enrolled. The metric is especially interesting for schools like USC and Texas, which arguably have fewer active NFL players – 25 and 22, respectively – than you might expect for schools that enrolled 139 and 150 blue-chip recruits, respectively, from 2007 to ’16.

School	4/5-Star Recruits (2007-16)	Avg. Recruiting Class Ranking (2007-16)	Number of NFL Players on 53-Man Roster	Active NFL Players/Blue-Chip Recruits
Alabama	180	2.8	56	31.1%
Ohio State	143	13.2	43	30.0%
LSU	150	6.4	35	23.3%
Florida	132	7.3	35	26.5%
Florida State	130	7.8	32	24.6%
Miami (FL)	88	16.2	32	36.3%
Oklahoma	109	12.7	31	28.4%
Georgia	127	7.8	30	23.6%
Texas A&M	86	19.3	28	32.5%
Clemson	93	16.9	27	29.0%
Auburn	117	10.8	26	22.2%
USC	139	5.7	25	17.9%
Notre Dame	129	10.8	25	19.3%
Tennessee	104	13.5	24	23.0%
South Carolina	73	20.6	24	32.8%
Michigan	110	15.4	23	20.9%
UCLA	98	24.1	23	23.4%
Texas	150	7.6	22	14.6%
Ole Miss	69	20.2	21	30.4%
Oregon	75	19.9	16	21.3%

NOTE: The number of 4/5-star recruits does not take into account transfers who left or joined a program.

The table above shows which schools have done the most with the most talent (and the least with the most talent) – at least relative to recruiting rankings.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that nine of those 20 schools are in the SEC since that has arguably been the best/deepest/insert adjective here conference in the country in the last 10 to 15 years. Its geographic footprint includes some of the most talent-rich states in the country and many of the conference members are among the schools that spend the most annually on recruiting.

The SEC arguably recruits better classes, top-to-bottom, than any other conference.

Just look at South Carolina, whose average recruiting class ranking from 2007 to ’16 was roughly 20th nationally, yet the Gamecocks had the eighth-best average ranking among SEC schools during that span.

But does better recruiting across the SEC lead to the production of more pros?

The numbers say yes, and by a fairly large margin.

Conference	Number of Active NFL Players	Average Per School
SEC	344	24.5
Big Ten	250	17.8
ACC	218	15.5
Pac-12	196	16.3
Big 12	132	13.2
American Athletic	99	8.2
Mountain West	65	5.4
Conference USA	61	4.3
MAC	46	3.8
Sun Belt	20	2.0

 

What about the opposite end of the spectrum from the Alabamas, Ohio States and USCs of the world?

What schools have taken middling, or worse, recruiting classes and produced more active NFL players than one would expect based on the star rankings of its players?

Wisconsin has 28 active NFL players, which is tied for the ninth-most nationally, even though the Badgers’ average recruiting class ranking from 2007 to ’16 was 41.4.

Wisconsin doing more with less isn’t a new concept.

The Badgers spent just $350,000 on recruiting in 2018, the 50th-most among Power Five schools Stadium examined and less than many Group of Five schools, but their recruiting budget hasn’t typically limited their win totals.

Similarly to Wisconsin, in terms of geography, conference and division, Iowa has produced more NFL talent than would be expected for a school whose average recruiting class ranking was 46.5.

There are 24 former Hawkeyes on an active NFL roster.

Other notable overachievers include N.C. State (19 active NFL players, average recruiting class ranking of 44.9), UCF (16, 66.1), Temple (15, 79.5), Memphis (12, 78.1), Central Michigan (10, 99.6) and Utah State (9, 105.9).

Notable underachievers include Arizona (5, 45.0), Minnesota (5, 51.0), Baylor (7, 42.2), Arizona State (10, 33.2) and Arkansas (12, 26.7).

Here’s the complete 1-to-130 list of FBS programs, listed in descending order of the number of active NFL players they’ve produced, then in alphabetical order in the case of ties.

Rank	School	Active NFL Players	Avg. Recruiting Class Ranking (2007-16)
1	Alabama	56	2.8
2	Ohio State	43	13.2
T3	Florida	35	7.3
T3	LSU	35	6.4
T5	Florida State	32	7.8
T5	Miami (FL)	32	16.2
7	Oklahoma	31	12.7
8	Georgia	30	7.8
T9	Penn State	28	28.0
T9	Texas A&M	28	19.3
T9	Wisconsin	28	41.4
12	Clemson	27	16.9
T13	Auburn	26	10.8
T13	Stanford	26	27.8
T15	Notre Dame	25	10.8
T15	USC	25	5.7
T15	Washington	25	31.0
T18	Iowa	24	46.5
T18	South Carolina	24	20.6
T18	Tennessee	24	13.5
T21	Michigan	23	15.4
T21	UCLA	23	24.1
23	Texas	22	7.6
24	Ole Miss	21	20.2
25	Mississippi State	20	30.4
T26	California	19	31.5
T26	Nebraska	19	27.0
T26	NC State	19	44.9
T29	Oregon	16	19.9
T29	UCF	16	66.1
T29	West Virginia	16	35.9
T32	Louisville	15	42.0
T32	North Carolina	15	25.2
T32	Temple	15	79.5
T32	Utah	15	48.2
T36	Michigan State	14	30.8
T36	Pittsburgh	14	37.2
T36	TCU	14	41.5
T36	Virginia Tech	14	27.3
T40	Boston College	13	57.5
T40	Colorado	13	53.1
T40	Illinois	13	47.7
T40	Virginia	13	41.4
T44	Arkansas	12	26.7
T44	Maryland	12	39.8
T44	Memphis	12	78.1
T44	Missouri	12	35.4
T44	Oklahoma State	12	31.9
T49	Kentucky	11	48.5
T49	Northwestern	11	56.9
T49	Rutgers	11	43.4
T49	Texas Tech	11	40.2
T53	Arizona State	10	33.2
T53	BYU	10	56.0
T53	Central Michigan	10	99.6
T53	Cincinnati	10	66.8
T53	Houston	10	65.2
T53	Kansas State	10	58.0
T53	Oregon State	10	51.8
T53	Purdue	10	63.5
T53	SMU	10	75.4
T53	Southern Miss	10	70.2
T53	Vanderbilt	10	53.2
T64	Boise State	9	68.7
T64	Colorado State	9	89.7
T64	Duke	9	61.3
T64	Indiana	9	59.9
T64	Utah State	9	105.9
T64	Washington State	9	57.3
T70	UConn	8	82.7
T70	Florida Atlantic	8	99.7
T70	Toledo	8	82.8
T70	Wyoming	8	105.4
T74	Baylor	7	42.2
T74	Fresno State	7	82.6
T74	San Jose State	7	98.9
T74	Western Kentucky	7	103.9
T78	Georgia Tech	6	47.4
T78	Marshall	6	68.1
T78	South Florida	6	57.3
T78	Tulane	6	89.8
T82	Arizona	5	45.0
T82	Kansas	5	56.5
T82	Louisiana Tech	5	88.0
T82	Minnesota	5	51.0
T82	Northern Illinois	5	100.4
T82	Old Dominion	5	115.9
T82	Rice	5	95.0
T82	San Diego State	5	75.8
T82	Wake Forest	5	62.8
T91	Akron	4	109.0
T91	Appalachian State	4	117.3
T91	East Carolina	4	82.3
T91	Georgia State	4	122.1
T91	Iowa State	4	62.0
T91	Kent State	4	108.0
T91	Nevada	4	94.6
T91	Syracuse	4	61.2
T91	Troy	4	96.1
T91	UAB	4	95.7
T91	Western Michigan	4	87.1
T102	Florida International	3	93.9
T102	Hawaii	3	88.1
T102	UMass	3	115.0
T102	Middle Tennessee	3	92.4
T106	Air Force	2	108.7
T106	Arkansas State	2	97.5
T106	Army	2	115.8
T106	Bowling Green	2	99.3
T106	Buffalo	2	112.4
T106	Eastern Michigan	2	112.8
T106	Miami (OH)	2	95.6
T106	New Mexico	2	96.1
T106	North Texas	2	99.3
T106	Ohio	2	102.7
T106	Texas State	2	110.0
T117	Ball State	1	102.0
T117	Charlotte	1	123.2
T117	Coastal Carolina	1	138.0
T117	Georgia Southern	1	112.8
T117	Liberty	1	151.9
T117	Louisiana	1	100.1
T117	Navy	1	109.6
T117	New Mexico State	1	112.2
T117	South Alabama	1	103.9
T117	Tulsa	1	81.8
T117	UTEP	1	115.3
T117	UTSA	1	114.8
T129	UL Monroe	0	112.3
T129	UNLV	0	99.0

 

MORE: Georgia Spent $2.6M on Recruiting Last Year. How Much Did Your School Spend?