Not terribly surprising, but interesting nonetheless

[dave mcbride]

The SEC leads, but the ACC is pretty close and the Big 10 isn't too far behind either. The Pac 10 and Big 12 are weak sisters, relatively speaking.

 

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20080706...rs_coming_from_

 

Looking at the Bills, their selections under Levy/Jauron/Brandon/Modrak have been:

 

ACC - 3 (Butler, McCargo, Ellis - 2 first day picks)

 

Big 10 - 4 (Hardy, Whitner, Youboty, Poz - 4 first day picks)

 

SEC - 3 (Steve Johnson, Kyle Williams, Simpson - zero first-day picks)

 

Pac 10 - 4 (Lynch, Merz, Ellison, Edwards - 2 first day picks)

 

Big 12 - 2 (TCU is big 12, right)

 

Big 12 - 3 (Fine, Bowen, Ah You - zero first day picks)

 

WAC - 3 (Wright, Wendling, Schouman - zero first day picks)

 

Mountain West - 1 (Pennington - zero first day picks)

 

Big East - 1 (Kennard Cox - zero first day picks)

 

Small schools - 4 (McKelvin, Corner, Omon, Bell - all taken in 08; 1 first day pick)

 

*The Bills' projected starting D*:

 

Small schools - 2 (both CBs)

 

Mountain West - 1 (Schoebel)

 

Big 12 - 1 (Kelsay)

 

Big 10 - 2 (Whitner, Poz)

 

Big East - 1 (Mitchell)

 

ACC - 2 (McCargo, Crowell)

 

SEC - 2 (Stroud, Simpson)

 

*Starting offense (no FB included; using 3 receivers)*

 

Pac 10 - 3 (Lynch, Edwards, Walker)

 

SEC - 3 (Peters, Royal, Reed)

 

ACC - 1 (Butler)

 

Big 12 - 1 (Dockery)

 

Big 10 - 2 (Hardy, Evans)

 

Notre Dame - 1 (Fowler)

 

*note - the ACC could be two instead of one if you project Parrish over Hardy. I don't, and think Hardy will be starting by game 10 full time.

[Beerball]

The SEC and Big 12 have 26 projected DT starters between them. McCargo is doomed.

[Pyrite Gal]

My sense is while the relative strength of the conferences is "interesting" as you say because it makes a real though marginal impact in assessing players, this issue simply wafts toward being an interesting sideshow when actually measuring individual players as being draft worthy or not.

 

Raw talent is the base determining factor as to how good a player may be. However, other factors such as individual determination, finding the right mentor (be it an HC, a parent coach, or a parent figure to help guide the athlete through the slings and arrows of being just past childhood with millions of dollars in your reach simply overwhelm the issue of strength of conference.

 

There are simply too many great pros who actually came from weak Div. 1A or lower division conferences and also busts who played for great schools in great conferences to really worry about this issue as more than an interesting sidelight for NFL or Buffalo Bills consideration.