College Town Touch down

The SEC has had the most players drafted in the first round since 2000 by a wide margin. The 2025 NFL Draft was no different. Though the addition of Texas was certainly a boost, the conference still dominated the first round with 15 players picked. The Big Ten was second this year in first round picks with 11 players picked, also receiving a boost with one of their newest members, the Oregon Ducks. 

Both conferences are clearly levels ahead of the rest of the college football world. All other conferences combined had 6 first round picks in 2025. The ACC and Big 12 each had 2 players picked, and the Mountain West Conference and the Missouri Valley Conference each had 1. 

This comes the first year after each conference added multiple enormous power house schools to their respective conferences. A move that was met with some push back from college football fans. Pretty quickly it is becoming obvious that for the conferences, it was a great move. Both conferences will continue to develop the best NFL talent and each get multiple teams in the college football playoff each year. 

In an era where the transfer portal is also under scrutiny, what would stop a player from any school outside of the SEC and Big Ten with one standout season under their belt from transferring? Not much. If you tell a kid from East Carolina that he’s a sellout for making tons of money and living out his NFL dreams, you need to be at least backed by a little bit of reasoning. Ultimately there is no reason for talented players to stay at their small schools. 

It seems with the total dominance of the two aforementioned conferences, we are heading into a college football era that is shaped like the NFL minor leagues. The NFL has two conferences. I would not be surprised if in the near future, the college football playoff has multiple automatic playoff bids from the SEC and Big Ten. 

Surely other conferences will contribute more NFL talent to the later rounds of this year’s NFL Draft, but don’t be surprised if we continue to see the top two conferences continue to widen the talent gap.