what percentage of college football players go to the nfl
A QB born in Japan. A Division Three WR of Haitian descent. It's the NFL. Patrick McDermott/Getty Images
If there is anything all NFL players have in mutual, it is that they are part of an exclusive group of men that have reached the highest level of professional football game.
Millions of people worldwide are playing football, but a number smaller than 2,000 will decide the events of the 2013 season.
Where does this elite talent come up from?
We just experienced some other draft, which is a grueling procedure of studying picture show on hundreds of prospects from hundreds of colleges. Before that, these players were part of the many thousands of high schools that play football.
Some players accept a short path to the NFL.
Running back Lamar Miller was born in Miami, Florida. He went to Miami Killian Loftier School. He then attended the Academy of Miami in Florida. Finally, he was drafted in the fourth round past the Miami Dolphins in the 2012 draft.
Other players are not as fortunate (or willing) to stay in one place.
Punter Ben Graham was born in Geelong, Australia. He attended Deakin University in Australia, but played Australian rules football. He was a standout player in the Australian Football League. It was not until 2005 that he made his NFL debut equally a punter at the ripe age of 31.
Since everyone likes a skillful origin story, permit'due south dive into the data on where NFL talent comes from.
Data Specifics
Some liberties were taken to acquire all of this data. Since current rosters are loaded (roughly xc players per team) with many players that will not make the final cut, we wanted to look at a sample of players that actually played in the NFL.
Roster data from the 2012 season was compiled from Pro-Football-Reference for each squad. This includes only players that played in at least i game concluding flavor.
A total of ane,947 players were studied.
This group was and then further analyzed by roster data from NFL.com. Some differences exist in where the histrion was born. In some cases, Wikipedia was also used. Noting where the role player went to loftier school would accept been good to have, simply we are sticking with place of birth here.
For colleges, players attention multiple schools only had their about contempo school counted.
In determining the conference and level of college football, we used the 2012 NCAA distinctions in every single case. Teams are obviously experiencing a lot of conference movement, but to not lose sanity over the research this method had to be implemented.
This ways that someone like Reggie Wayne technically played in the Large Due east at Miami, but he gets counted equally an ACC player since that's where the Hurricanes play now.
Then is the college breakup a perfect reflection? No, but it even so provides a expert moving picture.
Drafted vs. Undrafted Players
You likely have noticed teams sign a healthy amount of undrafted free agents immediately following the draft each April. These hopefuls will compete for a roster spot this summer, merely the chances of making information technology that far are slim.
Merely how slim? Nosotros can give a good judge from this data.
Of the 1,947 players, ane,374 (70.half dozen percentage) were an NFL draft choice. That means roughly three out of every 10 players in the NFL were in fact undrafted, so there is hope.
There may non exist many standout stories like Tony Romo or Arian Foster, merely undrafted players continue to be a necessary role of the team-edifice strategy.
Where Were They Built-in?
Where a person was born is not necessarily indicative of where they volition live, such as Robert Griffin III being born in Okinawa, Japan. He is the only agile NFL player born in Japan, but has lived his life in Washington, New Orleans and Texas.
No 1 will be surprised to learn near players were born in the U.s.a. (97.12 percent), simply the breakdown yet produced some interesting results:
The get-go affair you are probably thinking: of form Tim Tebow had to be born in the Philippines equally role of a Baptist missionary circuit by his parents.
Most of the births in strange countries were more than well-nigh the family unit'south circumstances at the time rather than any ethnic ties to the country. Though you take to imagine many Raiders fans were great Polish jokes subsequently kicker Sebastian Janikowski was drafted in the get-go circular in 2000, only to notice out he was in fact born in Poland before moving to united states of america.
Several of the international players are kickers. Scotland has produced Graham Gano and Lawrence Tynes. We mentioned Ben Graham before, simply Saverio Rocca was another Australian-born punter. You can say Graham paved the manner for him as Rocca fabricated his NFL debut in 2007 at historic period 33.
Federal republic of germany is the top international country with 11 players. Nine of them take been drafted since 2008. New England'due south Sebastian Vollmer, a true German, has been the best player. He was likewise the highest-drafted (58th overall in 2009) until the Colts took Bjoern Werner with the 24th pick in this yr'south draft.
Of the 56 international-born players, Osi Umenyiora has been the most impressive in the NFL. He was actually born in London, England and is Nigerian. He lived in Nigeria until the family moved to Auburn, Alabama. He lists his location equally "Global" on his Twitter account.
Now permit's focus on the 1,891 players born in the The states.
Yous might expect near players come from California and Texas, because that's normally how this country's population beaks down.
That is truthful. They are the top two states, though let'south do a comparison past per centum of 2012 NFL players in each state to percentage of U.South. population past land in 2010.
The percentages for total 2010 U.S. population come from Wikipedia. This is sorted past descending U.S. Rank, but you can encounter the straight comparison to where they rank in the NFL forth with the exact number of players and percentages:
In addition to the 50 states, the U.Southward. claims the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), the Virgin Islands and American Samoa as its territory.
The correlation coefficient betwixt the two sets of percentages is 0.92, and so there is a strong human relationship at work.
California may be king with 258 NFL players, just long alive the south. No land has a higher differential of NFL players compared to the expected population than Florida (3.77 per centum). No state sees a bigger drop than New York (three.33 per centum), which truly is the melting pot of America.
Football just works better in the south, which we know from the say-so in college football, just more on that later. States like Georgia, Alabama, Due south Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi all come across a healthy surplus of NFL players.
Four states (New Hampshire, Rhode Isle, North Dakota and Vermont) have no NFL players.
Samoan players are nothing new in the NFL, just four come up from the island known as American Samoa, which is U.S. territory. It is adjacent to Samoa, which is non nether U.S. control. The only actor from Samoa is Ropati Pitoitua. The top player right now from American Samoa is San Francisco'southward Mike Iupati.
It all just goes to show yous can be born anywhere and still make it to the NFL.
Where Did They Become to College?
These 1,947 players combined to attend 256 different colleges, which again only counts i school (the near recent) per player.
A full of 16 schools had at least 25 players. Hither is that list of the near attended colleges, and we accept a tie at the top:
No real surprises here. Simply seven players did not go to a higher in the United States. Ben Graham went to Deakin in Australia and the only thespian not to go to college at all was the aforementioned Aussie punter Sav Rocca.
These five players attended a college in Canada: Akiem Hicks (Regina), Cory Greenwood (Concordia), Israel Idonije (Manitoba), Jon Ryan (Regina) and Vaughn Martin (Western Ontario).
Idonije was built-in in Nigeria (Africa) before moving to Canada, so his journey to the NFL is probably the longest of whatsoever active role player. He has spent the concluding 9 seasons with the Chicago Bears.
As for college conferences, these players combined to play in 48 different ones. Please call back we are basing this on 2012 briefing alignments.
If yous take heard of all of these conferences earlier, consider yourself the earth'south almost extreme college football fan.
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) flexes its large muscles once again, leading the manner with 329 players (xvi.9 percent). That percentage will probable continue to grow as the 2013 draft merely had a conference tape 63 players taken from the SEC.
The SEC, ACC, Pacific 12, Big Ten and Large 12 are the 5 "power conferences" in college football game. Hither they account for 1,220 players, or 62.7 percent of the full sample.
Obviously the elite talent in NCAA football game is going to exist scooped upward by the best schools, merely many successful players still find their way to the NFL through a school with a lesser reputation.
The following breaks down the number of players by level of college football, which is also based on 2012 structure:
There is the Football Basin Subdivision, known as FBS (formerly Division I-A). Those are the large boys, which is obvious past the fact they brand up 86.9 percent of the 2012 NFL.
The lesser teams play in the Football game Championship Subdivision, known every bit FCS (formerly Sectionalisation I-AA). This includes conferences like the Big Sky, Big S, Ivy League and Patriot League.
Wrapping up NCAA schools, y'all have very small programs in Division II and Division Iii.
But nine 2012 players have made it from Division III, but the Washington Redskins have 2 of the best in London Fletcher (John Carroll) and Pierre Garcon (Mountain Union). Garcon'south Mount Union Purple Raiders have dominated Division Iii, winning eleven championships since 1993. Jacksonville receiver Cecil Shorts is also a production of Mount Matrimony.
The other six Division III players include: Andy Studebaker (Wheaton), Fred Jackson (Coe), Jason Trusnik (Ohio Northern), Jerrell Freeman (Mary-Hardin Baylor), Kyle Miller (Mount Union) and Michael Preston (Heidelberg).
The Canadian schools play in what is known as Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The only other group is the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). These are the simply four players that went to such schools: Armond Smith (Union College), Damon Harrison (William Penn), Tanner Purdum (Bakery) and Tramaine Brock (Bellhaven).
You should know by now which two players did not have a college briefing. If not, well crikey, mate.
Determination: A More than Global Game Is Coming
This was merely a (long) snapshot of 2012 NFL rosters, but moving forwards you can expect the game to become more global. Non only will more players be born outside of the United States, only they will be natives to their countries.
We have seen the globalization of the NBA with many European players and a Chinese superstar with rare talent similar Yao Ming. Some day the height quarterback prospect in the draft might exist from Communist china.
Sure, get your Timmy Chang jokes in now, but this is where the game is headed.
Football was not e'er the most popular sport in America, only current and hereafter generations will abound upwardly in a world where it is, which makes access to playing information technology easier, and not just for kids in America.
You can encounter the NFL's efforts to bring a game to London every year and to potentially place a franchise overseas. Globalization is crucial to maximizing profits, merely in that location is a real growing interest in the game in other countries. Today's technology makes the NFL that much more than accessible to those not living in America.
There was already a sign of this in the 2013 draft with a player like Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah going every bit the No. 5 pick to Detroit. Ansah was built-in in Ghana, did not watch football as a kid and did not even play the game until three years ago. Even so here he is as a top v selection. If he flops, then that may deter some teams in the future, only if he's a success information technology volition just fuel more selections like this 1.
Carolina rookie Star Lotulelei was born in Tonga. The aforementioned Bjoern Werner is another High german-drafted player. Menelik Watson, the second-circular offensive tackle taken by the Raiders, comes from Manchester, England.
The trends will go on with more foreign players and more than underclassmen beingness drafted high. Teams are not going to shy away from any potential talent. If they remember a guy can play, his groundwork is not going to slow down the procedure of finding greatness.
About the only thing left to check for these days is Rolando McClain-type baggage off the field.
There will e'er be a ton of people playing football game, but only a select few will brand it to the NFL. Once there, things tin go many different ways, merely merely getting there is an unbelievable accomplishment when y'all intermission information technology down.
Scott Kacsmar writes for Cold, Hard Football Facts, NBC Sports, Colts Authority, and contributes data to Pro-Football-Reference.com and NFL Network. Yous can visit his blog for a consummate writing archive, and can follow him on Twitter at @CaptainComeback.
Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1641528-where-does-nfl-talent-come-from