The Southeastern Conference no longer reigns as king of the NFL draft’s first round, its royal status toppled by the Big Ten.
At least in that regard.
The conference that coined the mantra “It Just Means More” for its dominance of college football in the 2010s remained in the top spot as the most productive overall after the SEC set a record for the number of players picked during the three-day offseason extravaganza last Thursday through Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Thanks to recent national champions Indiana (2025 season) and Ohio State (2024), the Big Ten led the way with 10 first-round picks, marking the first time the SEC didn’t have the most players taken in round one since 2015. The SEC had only seven first-round picks, which was down from a record 15 last year and represents the lowest total for the conference since 2015, when the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Pac-12 led the way with nine first-rounders each and the SEC had seven.
The first player selected from an SEC school this year was LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane, who went sixth overall to the Kansas City Chiefs. That marked the first draft without an SEC player in the top five since 2018, when Georgia linebacker Roquan Smith was the first taken at No. 8 overall by the Chicago Bears.
The depth of the SEC shined on the final two days in the Steel City, however, with the conference leading the way with a combined 29 picks Friday in the second and third rounds and with 51 more over the last four rounds Saturday. The 87 draftees from the SEC were the most ever for a single conference and easily beat Big Ten’s total of 67 this year.
The SEC has produced the most picks for 20 straight drafts since the ACC took top honors in 2006. Florida won the national title the following season, starting a stretch in which the SEC won 13 of 17 national championships.
That era of dominance ended when the Big Ten’s Michigan Wolverines won it all in the 2023 season. The rival Buckeyes followed up a year later, and then Indiana rose up with the most surprising championship run of all: a 16-0 season in which Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza led the way for the Hoosiers before becoming the No. 1 pick of this year’s draft, selected by the Las Vegas Raiders.
The other two current power conferences were far behind, with the ACC and Big 12 having six first-rounders each and 38 players picked in all.
The recent realignment that added more schools to all four power conferences, reduced restrictions on transfers, and the advent of NIL payments and revenue sharing all have combined to consolidate the talent at what were already the most powerful schools.
The only first-round selection this year who didn’t finish his college football career in the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten or SEC was cornerback Chris Johnson of San Diego State (which is moving this year from the Mountain West to the rebuilt Pac-12, formerly among the power conferences). He went 27th to the Miami Dolphins.
The next Group of Six player off the board was safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren of Mid-American Conference member Toledo at No. 58 to the Cleveland Browns. Only one other such player was picked on the first two days, with receiver Ted Hurst of Sun Belt member Georgia State going 84th to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In all, just 14 players from the Group of Six were drafted, with the American Conference and the MAC leading the way with four each. There were 39 others who transferred from a Group of Six school to a Power Four conference program, according to ESPN.
Seven draft picks came from Football Bowl Subdivision independent programs: six from Notre Dame and one from the University of Connecticut.
There were four players who came from NCAA Division I’s lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision, as well as one who didn’t play college football at all. The Philadelphia Eagles took Nigeria native Uar Bernard in the seventh round as part of the NFL’s International Pathway Program.
Record low for RBs
The first round of the draft provided some memorable milestones for running backs, with Jeremiyah Love becoming the first top-five selection at his position in eight years when the Arizona Cardinals took him third overall. Jadarian Price, a fellow Notre Dame running back, was the final pick of the first round, taken by the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks.
That marked the sixth time in the common draft era starting in 1967 when two running backs from the same college were taken in the first round of the same draft. Before last week, it had most recently happened in 2008 as Darren McFadden (fourth to the Oakland Raiders) and Felix Jones (22nd to the Dallas Cowboys) of Arkansas were selected.
After the Fighting Irish duo had their moment in Pittsburgh, though, running backs were mostly an afterthought.
The next one off the board came near the end of the third round, when the San Francisco 49ers took Indiana’s Kaelon Black 90th overall, marking the fewest running backs selected in the first three rounds of the common draft.
Only 10 more running backs went on the final day, with the 13 total the fewest taken in any draft.
Tight ends had a banner weekend with 22 picked, the most since 2015, according to Sportradar, when there were also 22 chosen as the league’s trend of more multi-tight end formations put a premium on the position.
The trenches were dominant as usual, with teams drafting 51 defensive linemen and 50 offensive linemen. There were also 46 defensive backs, 36 receivers, 26 linebackers, 10 quarterbacks and three specialists picked.
Buckeyes stand out
Ohio State was the third-fastest school ever to have four players picked in a draft, with receiver Carnell Tate (fourth to the Tennessee Titans), linebacker Arvell Reese (fifth to the New York Giants), linebacker Sonny Styles (seventh to the Washington Commanders) and safety Caleb Downs (11th to the Dallas Cowboys) all gone before a dozen selections were made.
The only schools ever to have four players picked that quickly were Michigan State, with four of the top eight in 1967, and Notre Dame, with four of the top 10 in 1946.
The Buckeyes didn’t slow down from there with seven more players drafted, giving them the most of any school this year with 11. Alabama and Texas A&M had 10 each, followed by Clemson, Miami and Texas Tech with nine apiece.
This also marked the 88th straight draft that both Michigan and the University of Southern California had a player picked for the longest streaks of any school. Notre Dame has missed only one year (1977) of having a player picked in the regular draft since 1938 but did have running back Al Hunter taken in the supplemental draft that year.
Wisconsin had its streak of at least one player picked each year since 1979 snapped.
Moving right along
The NFL shortened the time between picks in the first round from 10 minutes to eight minutes, cutting the total duration of the round to less than three hours.
The league said the first round took 2 hours, 53 minutes on Thursday night, down 36 minutes from last year and 40 minutes less than the average of the previous five drafts.
The duration of the first round has been cut in half since commissioner Roger Goodell’s first draft in 2007. Teams that year had 15 minutes to make their picks in the opening round, leading to a 6-hour, 8-minute round in 2007.