NFL Scouting Combine: LSU leads top 10 colleges with most combine invites

After an unforgettable college season, the LSU Tigers dominate the competition with the most invitees to the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

The 2019 LSU Tigers were an unbelievably stacked football team.

We’ve known how phenomenal of a recruiter LSU head coach Ed Orgeron is and how talent-rich Louisiana is as a high school football state. The Bayou Bengals certainly put it all together last season, with the fruits of the labor translating into championships and scouting combine invitations.

Yes, LSU leads the way with the most invitees to the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis this winter. The Tigers have a staggering 16 players from its national championship team interviewing for NFL teams at the combine, as well as strutting their stuff in essentially glorified underwear at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Schools with the most Combine invites:

1. LSU – 16
2. Ohio State – 11
3. Michigan – 11
4. Alabama – 10
5. Georgia – 10
6. Notre Dame – 9
7. Auburn – 9
8. Utah – 9
9. Florida – 8
10. Miami – 8

LSU has five more players at the combine than the programs with the second most at 11 apiece with the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes. The Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs round out the top five with 10 players each. The Auburn Tigers, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Utah Utes, the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes round out the top 10.

Outside of Utah coming in a three-way tie for sixth with Auburn and Notre Dame, the other nine programs listed are what we consider those to be of blue-blood status, or near enough. To see these programs with around 10 players invited to the combine shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, there are a few things that stand out from this top 10 from Indianapolis.

Nowhere to be found are perennial College Football Playoff contenders like the Clemson Tigers or the Oklahoma Sooners. While teams like Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia and Notre Dame have been top-10 programs throughout much of the playoff era, it’s interesting to find several schools on this list that haven’t even made it to the final four once.

While programs like Florida and Utah have been close, you can’t say it’s been a great half-decade for Michigan or Miami in really any capacity. Auburn has had its moments, but one would think Michigan and Miami would have made the playoff maybe once with the amount of talent they have at their disposal.

Overall, the amount of players getting invited to the combine signifies how well a school recruits and more importantly, how well they develop their players. Having five SEC teams in the top 10 isn’t a surprise, but only having Utah and Miami represent their respective Power 5 conferences seem a tad odd. Also, where is the Big 12 representation in all of this? Nowhere to be found.

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