NFL Draft 2013: The 10 colleges whose draftees offer the best pro value

Some schools have a reputation for producing the best NFL talent. Football Outsiders did some research, and figured out which schools actually supply the best players in terms of NFL value.

By Peter Berkes Apr 16, 2013, 1:44pm EDT

Football Outsiders, the delightful, statistically inclined football website, has done some digging to see which schools produce the best NFL draft picks in terms of value. The rankings were done based on value above expectation, as well as return on investment. I'd explain further, but it's complicated and they've already done a very good job of detailing the rationale.

And with that, the top 10 colleges for producing valuable NFL players:

1. LSU
2. Pittsburgh
3. Miami
4. Georgia
5. Virginia
6. UCLA
7. Purdue
8. Louisville
9. Georgia Tech
10. Texas A&M

That's three SEC teams, three ACC teams, two Big East teams, a Big Ten team and a Pac-12 team. Some of those schools, like LSU, Miami, and Georgia, you could probably guess would be in there, but Pitt, Virginia and Purdue are definitely surprises.

It seems that schools with the greatest number of players selected did not fare very well in these rankings. In fact, nine of the top 10 in terms of total selections did not make the top 10 in terms of value, with only Miami making the cut. Those other nine teams are Nebraska, USC, Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Florida. Obviously, there's something to be said for producing the highest number of pro prospects possible, but that's not what these rankings are about.

Oh, and NFL teams: Take note of the glut of LSU underclassmen available in the 2013 NFL Draft.