SEC leads all conferences with players on Week 1 NFL rosters

Former SEC football stars continue to dominate NFL rosters professionally.

Yes, NFL players with SEC football roots make up just over one-fifth of active rosters.

On this graphic from The SEC Network, the SEC accounts for 21 percent of all NFL Week 1 rosters. That’s 356 players, the most of any conference in the league this season. Leading the way with the most players in the NFL out of the SEC is the Alabama Crimson Tide with a staggering 57. Most teams have more than 20 and every team has at least 12 players.

Alabama could field an entire NFL roster with the 57 alums on Week 1 rosters, and it’s clear it just means more in the SEC with 21 percent of NFL players hailing from the top conference in college football

Admittedly, this is not much of a surprise. The SEC has been the most dominant conference in the college landscape for well over a decade and a half. From 2006-2012, only SEC teams won national championships. Since 2005, only one time has an SEC team not played for a national champion. In the 2010s, twice did we have two SEC teams face off in the national title bout.

While the coaching has been hit or miss throughout, there has never been any doubt about the talent emanating from the Southeastern footprint. Though in the ACC, the Clemson Tigers have been able to take care of business in their Power 5 conference by playing an ACC schedule with SEC talent. Only the Big Ten’s Ohio State Buckeyes have really been able to keep pace consistently.

So as you look around any NFL team, you’re bound to have at least one former Alabama player, one former LSU Tigers player, one former Florida Gators player and one former Georgia Bulldogs player on a roster. All four powerhouse programs have at least 33 players in the league right now. As expected, these are the teams regularly contending for SEC Championships and playoff berths.

Five SEC teams have at between 20 and 29 players in the league. Those five teams are the Texas A&M Aggies, the Auburn Tigers, the South Carolina Gamecocks, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers. In short, there is a strong chance you’ve got at least one player from one of those schools on your favorite NFL team’s roster as well.

While it does drop a bit to the lower tier of SEC teams, the Ole Miss Rebels, the Arkansas Razorbacks, the Missouri Tigers, the Kentucky Wildcats and the Vanderbilt Commodores all have between 12 and 14 players on NFL rosters for 2020. It’s a slightly less than 50 percent chance you’ll have a player from one of these five SEC schools on your favorite NFL team.

With ‘Cats and Dawgs living together, don’t be shocked if the best NFL players have SEC roots.

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