If you haven’t already heard, one MAC school joined some rather select draft company this past week.
For the fourth straight year Thursday, a player from an FBS program went No. 1 overall in the Canadian Football League draft; that’s the first time FBS players have gone first in back-to-back-to-back-to-back years in the Great White North’s version of the Player Selection Meeting. This time around the honor went to Mark Chapman, the Central Michigan wide receiver who led the Chippewas in receptions (59) and receiving yards (875) this past season.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats were the team drafting Chapman with that top pick, trading up from No. 2 overall with the Montreal Alouettes to select the receiver.
“I’m just excited,” Chapman, who holds dual-citizenship as his mother was born in Canada and his father in the United States, said according to his former college team’s official website. “To go No. 1 overall, it’s surreal. I never envisioned myself in this position.
When you add Chapman to Eric Fisher, the former Chips offensive tackle who was the first player taken in the 2013 NFL draft, CMU becomes just the sixth FBS program -- the first from a Group of Five conference, incidentally -- to have players selected No. 1 overall in both the NFL and CFL drafts.
The other five?
SYRACUSE
RB Ernie Davis, 1962 (NFL)
OT Steve Scully, 1975 (CFL)
UTAH
QB Alex Smith, 2005 (NFL)
OL Chad Folk, 1997 (CFL)
WASHINGTON STATE
QB Drew Bledsoe, 1993 (NFL)
DE Rob Meier, 1999 (CFL)
DE Adam Braidwood, 2006 (CFL)
IOWA
QB Randy Duncan, 1959 (NFL)
DL Faith Ekakitie, 2017 (CFL)
OKLAHOMA
DE Lee Roy Selmon, 1976 (NFL)
RB Billy Sims, 1980 (NFL)
QB Sam Bradford, 2010 (NFL)
QB Baker Mayfield, 2018 (NFL)
OL Josiah St. John, 2016 (CFL)