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So the Wall Street Journal does this story last Friday on which colleges really train the best NFL players. Well, at least that's what they said. What they really meant was how well their alumni are doing in the pro's. It did not factor the quality of the athlete coming in from high school versus the quality of the same player in the pro's. In my mind that's not necessarily an indication that they are training them better. If you're getting the best to start with, I would expect you to send more to the league. FSU comes in at #1 by a long way.
Now, if you have not been attracting the best of the best, then the next list you want to show up on is the "underrated" list of programs that has players consistently perform better than their draft position would indicated. Georgia Tech shows up at #9 on that list, which is a testament to the facilities, the strength/conditioning programs, teaching and the quality of individuals coming to school here.
MOST UNDERRATED
Among 250-plus schools that sent alumni to the NFL, these produced players who performed better than their draft level would have predicted..:
SCHOOL DRAFT VALUE
1. East Carolina 66.8
2. Arizona 60.3
3. San Jose State 50.9
4. West Virginia 50.0
5. Colorado State 46.5
6. Baylor 46.1
7. Indiana 44.8
8. So. Mississippi 37.6
9. Georgia Tech 34.2
10. North Carolina 31.2
On a side note, while UGAg finished 3rd on the overall list of schools whose alumni are performing well in the NFL, they also did show up on the "most overrated" list as well, coming in at #8. So while they are sending many players to the NFL, you can loosely draw the conclusion that they should be doing a lot better based on the quality of athletes they are getting in the first place.
MOST OVERRATED
...while alumni of the following schools performed below the level their draft status would have indicated.
SCHOOL DRAFT VALUE
1. Texas Christian 8.2
2. Oregon State 10.7
3. Miami (Fla.) 10.9
4. Oklahoma 12.1
5. Arkansas 14.6
6. Wisconsin 15.4
7. Ohio State 15.6
8. Georgia 15.8
9. Oregon 16.0
10. Utah 16.2