Buck Bravo

Having reviewed the 2009 draft by conference in yesterday’s post, let’s take a look at how the teams of the Big Ten stacked up against each other in the 2009 draft.  Final conference standings are also included in the last column:

Not surprisingly, the teams with the most players drafted in the 2009 NFL draft could also be found near the top of the final 2008 Big Ten standings.  Michigan State finished third in the conference despite contributing only one fifth round pick to the draft, and Northwestern finished fifth in the conference despite having no one drafted.

Let’s look at how the teams fared once the picks are weighted by round:

Ohio State still retains the lead, and a few teams shuffle places.  The weighting system that was used works well with large numbers of players, but I’d have to disagree that Wisconsin offered a higher quality class to the NFL than Penn State.  Not a knock on Wisconsin, as four players taken in a single draft is a great feat.  It just seems that Penn State’s first round pick combined with two third round picks should legitimately give them the second best draft class in the Big Ten.

The rivalries and comparisons of major college conferences are usually settled in bowl games.  Advocates and fans of each conference often claim superiority of talent due to speed, size, smarts, and recruiting star ratings.  Let’s break down the number of draftees from each conference by round:

The SEC, as expected, had the most first round picks in the 2009 draft.  The Big 12 had a strong first round, but ended up even with the Big 10 for total number of draftees.

Following is a draft rating chart that weights the rankings for draft rounds (first round picks are more valuable that sixth) and the number of schools in each conference:

When the rankings are weighted, the SEC barely hangs on to a lead over the PAC 10.  The Big East leapfrogs the Big 10 and Big 12 due to having only eight schools in their conference.  The ACC drops down to last place due to having twelve schools in the conference and several late round picks.

While the rankings in both of the above charts shouldn’t be surprising, all of the conferences scored much more closely than some might expect.  All in all, the biggest college football conferences contributed rather evenly to the NFL in 2009.

First of all, let it be known that I hate the whole concept of Twitter.  I don’t care what time anyone takes a shower, what they eat, when they go to bed, or when they’re stuck in traffic.  I will never “tweet,” I’ll never be a “twit,” I’ll never attend a “Twestival,” and I’ll never post my Tweeter online for anyone and everyone to see.

In short, I’ll leave Twitter to the celebrities seeking publicity, the self-absorbed existential narcissists who think people actually care about their daily routines, and the celebrity stalkers who actually read all that BullTwit.

Apparently a local controversy is brewing regarding a twit temporarily left on the account that Tim Brewster runs to publicize Gopher football.  Since this story is a few days old, I’ll just link to the most interesting reactions from the blogosphere:

- PJS at The Daily Gopher offers up a unique Obamicon to commemorate the event.

- Iowa’s Black Heart Gold Pants wouldn’t miss an opportunity like this one.

- Ohio State’s Eleven  Warriors was the first blog to react.

- National blog CFT also picked up on the story.

Following is a new video of Eric Decker’s highlight reel:

Quarterback Tom Parish of Arrowhead High School in Hartland, Wisconsin has committed to play football for the Gophers.  At 6′3 200 pounds with a 4.6 second forty yard dash time, Parish has the measurables to be a good fit for the Gopher offense.  While the recruiting services have yet to rate Parish, his Rivals.com profile can be viewed here, and his ESPN profile can be viewed by clicking here.