When the Cowboys selected Wisconsin center Travis Frederick with the 31st pick in the NFL draft, the Big Ten Conference could breathe a sigh of relief: It meant that the first round wouldn’t come and go without a single Big Ten player selected.
But it was a close call, as Frederick was the only Big Ten player drafted. And for yet another reminder that the best college football talent can be found in the SEC, a whopping 12 first-round picks came from SEC schools.
Alabama had three first-round picks: Dee Milliner, Chance Warmack and D.J. Fluker going back-to-back-to-back at picks 9-11. (And three first-round picks is actually a down year for Alabama.)
Three other SEC schools had two first-round picks: Florida (Sharrif Floyd and Matt Elam), Georgia (Jarvis Jones and Alec Ogletree) and LSU (Barkevious Mingo and Eric Reid). The other SEC players drafted on Thursday night were Texas A&M’s Luke Joeckel, Missouri’s Sheldon Richardson and Tennessee’s Cordarrelle Patterson.
The 12 first-round picks for the SEC tied the record for the most first-round picks from one conference in one year. The ACC had 12 first-round picks in 2006.