24 players on current NFL rosters. 1st amongst NC schools & 4th in the ACC. #ACC #NFL #WOLFPACK pic.twitter.com/3yUijaHe7C
— Desmond Kitchings (@coachdeskitch) April 29, 2014
On the heels of last week’s NFL Draft that saw the ACC turn in a solid outing with its second-highest number of draft picks in history (42), a few demographic and geographical trends emerged that were absolutely fascinating to me.
Did you you know that FIVE STATES were responsible for almost HALF of NFL draft picks? That’s insane! And, it’s not an anomaly.
In the past three NFL drafts, players from Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and Ohio made up 47.3% of the 763 players selected. In 2013, the percentage was 51.3%.
The link has a few more points worth noting.
This work reminds me of the work that I saw the ACC Sports Journal do (like ten years ago) that showed that North Carolina high schools actually produce raw numbers of college and pro talent that is not far off from the ‘big boy’ states. So, why do North Carolina’s colleges fail to produce results that even occasionally compare with the results of almost every other state from Virginia down through Texas? Well, North Carolina has more ‘Division One’ football programs to split that high school talent therefore significantly negatively impacting our “prospects per Division One program”.
With that information in the public domain…what has the UNC Board of Governors done over the last few years?
Answer: Add TWO MORE Division One (Football Bowl Subdivision) programs – App State and UNC-Charlotte – to North Carolina’s already crowded FBS landscape. Awesome!
