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The B1G had another impressive showing at the draft this year, placing 41 players into the NFL, 1 behind the SEC. This is in spite of the lower level of recruit that the B1G attracts (on average), which the conference overcomes by being the best in the land at developing the talent it pulls in. However, major differences exist within the conference: Attending Iowa or Ohio State nearly doubles (!) a recruit's chances of making it to The League, while Minnesota and Northwestern have been wasting the already moderate amount of talent they manage to attract. The full rankings for the conference: 1. Iowa (National #1) 2. Ohio State (National #4) 3. Wisconsin (National #2 for Linemen) 4. Penn State 5. Nebraska 6. Michigan State 7. Michigan 8. Illinois 9. Purdue 10. Northwestern 11. Indiana 12. Minnesota

The SEC again had the most draft picks (42) this year, due to the combination of the conference's ability to bring in talent and then develop it out on the field. There is a lot of focus on recruiting aspect of that formula, but much less on the importance of player development. This article matches Rivals rankings to draft results to quantify player development, and finds big differences between the SEC programs. Georgia is by far the best developer of talent in the SEC, and the rest of the conference breaks down as follows: 1. Georgia 2. LSU 3. Florida 4. Alabama 5. South Carolina 6. Arkansas 7. Auburn 8. Tennessee 9. Vanderbilt 10. Kentucky 11. Mississippi 12. Mississippi State

I took a look at the finances of college football over at BHGP and the conference comparisons are probably pretty interesting to Big Ten fans in general. I broke down athletics revenues into Earnings, Donations and Subsidies and used that to compare the financial situations between conferences. As expected its the Big Ten vs. the SEC at the top. The Big Ten is in the lead but the southerners are keeping it close through their impressive dedication to charity...

(Belatedly bumped for general awesomeness. Read this if you haven't already. -- RB) I posted a look at how the various Big Ten schools have performed bowl-wise over at Off Tackle Empire. You know you've hit on a good topic when it's natural to bring up Northwestern's 60 year bowl winning drought.