No school sent more players to the NFL Draft in the 2014 NFL Draft than LSU. The Tigers had nine players drafted, good enough to edge Alabama and Notre Dame for the most drafted players.
In the last four years (2011-2014) LSU has had 29 players drafted, which averages out to just over seven players per year. That demonstrates a model of consistency within the program beginning with recruiting and identifying potential as well as talent. LSU has been recruiting high quality talent, coaching and developing the players along the way and sending players out with a good chance to make an NFL roster. That is a tremendous credit to the work being done by Les Miles and the entire staff on and off the football field.
The scary part is Alabama has been doing slightly better.
In the same four-year time span, Alabama has had 30 players drafted by NFL teams. Alabama had eight players drafted in the 2014 NFL Draft, bringing the Crimson Tide to a total of 30 players drafted in the last four years. Like LSU, Nick Saban has turned Alabama into a one-stop warehouse for NFL talent through rich recruiting and by showing the ability to develop and grow talent to be NFL-ready. Saban has also been able to cash in on a few more rings along the way compared to Miles and LSU. But championship title counts aside, when it comes to preparing players for the NFL, Alabama and LSU are performing on a different level from many.
In the 2012 BCS Championship Game Alabama and LSU battled in a rematch of a regular season division game. To date, 48 players who were a part of the two programs playing in that game have now been drafted. The following season Alabama played Notre Dame for the BCS title. Notre Dame is also no stranger to sending talent to the NFL Draft, having done so 18 times over the last three years. A total of 14 Notre Dame players from the 2013 BCS Championship Game have been drafted, bringing that game’s NFL Draft total to 31 players.
If you are wondering how some other programs have done in producing NFL Draft players over the last four years, here is a small sample (not every school was checked) using data from 2011 through 2014:
Alabama: 30
LSU: 29
Florida State: 25
Georgia: 23
Oklahoma: 21
Clemson: 19
Miami: 19
Notre Dame: 19
USC: 19
Wisconsin: 19
Florida: 18
South Carolina: 17
Stanford: 17
Nebraska: 16
Baylor: 15
Ohio State: 14
Oregon: 14
Texas A&M: 13
Penn State: 12
Auburn: 10
Michigan: 10
Tennessee: 10
Texas: 10
Source: DraftHistory.com