A simple run down the rosters for both the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks will show you 31 players who come from the SEC. No conference has more players involved in the big game this season, and that should come as little surprise. Take a deeper look though and you will see that the key players may be just as likely to come from the Pac 12.
The Pac 12 and SEC each have 16 players on the two-deep depth charts for this year’s Super Bowl participants, and the Pac 12 has one more first team player accounted for than the SEC. That number is curved by the Seahawks, where former USC head coach Pete Carroll has made use of more starters with Pac 12 backgrounds on offense and defense.
As noted by AL.com, the Tennessee Volunteers have the most players playing Sunday with five. Behind Tennessee is Arizona State, Florida, Penn State, Texas A&M, USC and Wisconsin (including Russell Wilson, who also played at North Carolina State). Each of those schools have four players on the roster.
Texas Tech has plenty of influence on the success of Denver’s offense. The Red Raiders have two starters on the offensive line (Louis Vasquez and Manny Ramirez) protecting Peyton Manning. One of Manning’s top targets is another former Texas Tech player, wide receiver Wes Welker.
There are a total of 10 players from the two-deep charts that come from the FCS ranks as well. That equals the number of starters or second team players from the ACC and Big Ten.