Which conferences do NFL players come from?

[IncrediBULL]

Interesting article.  Heres the link: 

http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20080706/OPINION01/617509449/1103/sports&title=What_conferences_are_the_NFL_s_starters_coming_from_

..............the Key excerpt from the article........

Overall Breakdown

When you break it all down, the SEC leads the way with 137 projected starters for the 2008 NFL season. The ACC finished second with 121 projected starters.

The Big Ten finished third with 105 starters and the Big 12 was fourth with 72 projected starters.

The Pac-10 finished with 70 starters, the Big East has 33 starters and Conference USA and the Mountain West each have 22 starters.

The WAC has 21 projected starters and the Mid-American has 19 starters. The Independents have 13 projected starters and the Sun Belt has 12 starters.

There are 57 players from the small college ranks that are projected starters in the NFL for 2008.

Despite all the coaching changes and realignment in different conferences in the past, especially the ACC, the SEC stands atop of the college football mountain when it comes to sending players to the NFL and becoming starters in the league.

[KB]

If you look at it by conference, per number of teams in the conference, the order would be:

SEC

ACC

Big Ten

Pac 10

Big 12

Big East

Independents

Mountain West

WAC

Conference USA

Sun Belt

Mid American

[IncrediBULL]

Amazing part is that the ACC sucked last year, and have been a marginal conference for a number of years, but look how many starters tehy have in the NFL. 

Is it because the BEAST and mid majors have come on strong as of late and they just are not starters yet?  Or is their bias in the NFL toward mid majors and non BCS schools?

[Bull Martin]

SEC              (11.4 per team)

ACC              (10.1 per team)

Big Ten          (9.5 per team)

Pac 10          (7 per team)

Big 12            (6 per team)

Big East          (4.1 per team)

Independents (4.3 per team, but probably closer to 10 for notredam and like 3 for the others)

Mountain West

WAC

Conference USA (1.8 per team)

Sun Belt

Mid American

and I don't really know or care to know how many teams are in the other conferences

[80mins]

Question on the methodology: Are they talking about which conference each player graduated from, or what conference the school from which each player graduated it currently in? For example, is someone who graduated from Miami in 2002 credited on behalf of the Big East (the conference they were in when they graduated) or the ACC (the conference Miami's in now)?

[KB]

SEC              (11.4 per team)

ACC              (10.1 per team)

Big Ten          (9.5 per team)

Pac 10           (7 per team)

Big 12            (6 per team)

Big East          (4.1 per team)

Independents (4.3 per team, but probably closer to 10 for notredam and like 3 for the others)

Mountain West

WAC

Conference USA (1.8 per team)

Sun Belt

Mid American

and I don't really know or care to know how many teams are in the other conferences

I was thinking there were 4 Ind, but they probably aren't counting WKU?

[Bull Martin]

I was thinking there were 4 Ind, but they probably aren't counting WKU?

It was kind of a guess.  I thought it was 3.  I could be wrong, but it's still probably close to ND has 10-12 players and the other 2-3 teams has 1-3 players