2014 Super Bowl rosters by colleges and conferences: The CFB fan's rooting guide

College football fan, you're going to watch the Super Bowl in two weeks. But if you don't already have a favorite team, you're probably going to fall back on college ties in order to make your pick. That's where we come in.

By Jason Kirk Jan 20, 2014, 2:24pm EST

Pete Volk also contributed to this story.

This is a Western Super Bowl, with even the teams' coaching staffs and front offices bending Pacific.

The Seahawks have 20 players from West Coast conferences, more than they have from any other region. The Broncos have 14. Broncos VP John Elway played at Stanford. Ten of Broncos head coach John Fox's career stops have been west of the Mississippi, with his college days and intro to coaching coming at San Diego State. And Pete Carroll is as Pacific as it gets.

But the Broncos' roster leans Southern, from Peyton Manning to Demaryius Thomas to Champ Bailey. And that comes through even more when we look at starters. If we were to count Texas as Southern, then 17 of Denver's 24 starters played college football at schools in the South, compared to 11 for Seattle.

So for every college football fan who wishes we'd get to see more bowl games between Pac-12 and SEC teams: here you go.

Note: We're counting only active/reserved/injured rosters, not practice squad/future rosters, and we're going by current conference affiliations.

Schools with multiple players on either team

Seahawks		Broncos
Texas A&M	3 (Michael Bennett, Red Bryant, Christine Michael)	Tennessee	4 (Robert Ayers, Britton Colquitt, Malik Jackson, Peyton Manning)
USC	3 (Anthony McCoy, Mike Morgan, Malcolm Smith)	Florida	3 (Andre Caldwell, Jeremy Mincey, Lerentee McCray)
NC State	3 (Steven Hauschka, J.R. Sweezy, Russell Wilson)	Kentucky	3 (Jacob Tamme, Danny Trevathan, Wesley Woodyard)
Wisconsin	3 (Chris Maragos, O'Brien Schofield, Russell Wilson)	Texas Tech	3 (Manny Ramirez, Louis Vasquez, Wes Welker)
Alabama	2 (James Carpenter, Jesse Williams)	Arizona State	2 (Omar Bolden, Brock Osweiler)
California	2 (Brandon Mebane, Marshawn Lynch)	Georgia	2 (Champ Bailey, Knowshon Moreno)
Oklahoma State	2 (Michael Bowie, Russell Okung)	Kansas	2 (Steven Johnson, Chris Harris Jr.)
Oregon	2 (Walter Thurmond, Max Unger)	Nevada	2 (Virgil Green, Brandon Marshall)
South Carolina	2 (Lemuel Jeanpierre, Sidney Rice)	San Diego State	2 (Aaron Brewer, Ronnie Hillman)
Stanford	2 (Doug Baldwin, Richard Sherman)	Texas	2 (Michael Huff, Quentin Jammer)
Utah State	2 (Robert Turbin, Bobby Wagner)
Idaho	2 (Benson Mayowa, Korey Toomer)
LSU	2 (Tharold Simon, Spencer Ware)
Louisville	2 (Breno Giacomini, Greg Scruggs)
Penn State	2 (Jordan Hill, Michael Robinson)

The Seahawks also have a player each from Alabama State, Arizona State, Arkansas, Boise State, Clemson, Cornell, FIU, Florida, Fort Valley State, Georgia, Holy Cross, Memphis, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Northwestern State, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Portland State, Purdue, Regina, Rice, San Diego State, Southern Illinois, TCU, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Washington, Weber State, and West Virginia.

The Broncos also have a player each from Boise State, Boston College, California, Cincinnati, Colorado State, Delaware, Florida State, Fordham, Georgia Tech, LSU, Miami, Miami (Ohio), Michigan State, Minnesota, NC State, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Portland State, Purdue, Richmond, San Jose State, Southern Miss, Stanford, Temple, Tennessee State, Texas A&M, UCF, UCLA, USC, USF, Utah, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Western Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Basically, you're rooting for the Seahawks if you're a fan of the Pac-12, the Big Ten, Alabama, California, Idaho, Louisville, LSU, NC State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Penn State, South Carolina, Stanford, Texas A&M (!), USC (but you already knew that), Utah State, Wisconsin, or Canada.

But you're a Broncos fan for the next two weeks if you cheer for the SEC, the ACC, the Big 12, the Mountain West, Arizona State, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Nevada, San Diego State, Tennessee, Texas, Texas Tech, or Alaska.

And yep, NC State and Wisconsin fans, you're each getting full credit for Russell Wilson.

Schools with multiple starters on either team

Seahawks		Broncos
NC State	3 (Steven Hauschka, J.R. Sweezy, Russell Wilson)	Tennessee	3 (Britton Colquitt, Malik Jackson, Peyton Manning)
California	2 (Brandon Mebane, Marshawn Lynch)	Texas Tech	3 (Manny Ramirez, Louis Vasquez, Wes Welker)
Stanford	2 (Doug Baldwin, Richard Sherman)	Georgia	2 (Champ Bailey, Knowshon Moreno)
		Kentucky	2 (Danny Trevathan, Wesley Woodyard)

Did you know Peyton Manning played at Tennessee? Tennessee is proud to remind you of this:

Amazing photo of our #VFL Peyton Manning from the @Broncos website #SuperBowl #Broncos pic.twitter.com/nMplRyOB5m
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 20, 2014

5 #Vols in #SuperBowl leads all colleges, sets new high for UT. Get the details: http://t.co/p6GC347h7Z #VFL pic.twitter.com/4JYEf7zxz5
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 20, 2014

Will we see this again, 2 weeks from now? #Peyton #VFL #Vols pic.twitter.com/KbE0ZpxD3z
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 20, 2014

A #VFL will now be in the @SuperBowl for the 22nd time in 23 years: http://t.co/bK0cKYh36R pic.twitter.com/KURS3AtbG3
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) January 19, 2014

And rightfully so! Actually, it's starting to seem like pretty much every school with a player in the game is going to do this all the way through the game, but Tennessee goes as hard as anybody.

Players on each team per conference

Seahawks		Broncos
SEC	14	SEC	14
Pac-12	13	ACC	8
Big Ten	7	Big 12	8
Big 12	5	Mountain West	8
ACC	4	Big Ten	6
Mountain West	4	Pac-12	6
American	3	American	4
Independent	3	Big Sky	2
Big Sky	2	CAA	2
Conference USA	2	Conference USA	1
CWUAA	1	Independent	1
Ivy	1	MAC	1
Missouri Valley	1	Ohio Valley	1
Patriot	1	Patriot	1
SIAC	1	Sun Belt	1
Southland	1
SWAC	1

Must Reads

Richard Sherman and the new Stanford

Jack Blanchat •Rule Of Tree

Stanford is Andrew Luck and David Shaw and John Elway. But it's also Richard Sherman.

Must Reads

Richard Sherman and the new Stanford

Check out the mighty FCS Big Sky, which sends North Dakota's Chris Kuper, Portland State's DeShawn Shead and Julius Thomas, and Weber State's Paul McQuistan to the Super Bowl, more players than the FBS MAC and Sun Belt combined.

Conferences with multiple starters

Seahawks		Broncos
Pac-12	7	SEC	7
ACC	5	ACC	4
SEC	4	Big 12	3
Big 12	3	American	2
Big Ten	2	Big Ten	2

See? The Pac-12 vs. the SEC.

Total Super Bowl players by school and conference

Counting only schools with multiple players, and the Vols indeed come out on top.

School		Conference
Tennessee	5	SEC	28
Florida	4	Pac-12	19
Texas A&M	4	Big 12	13
USC	4	Big Ten	13
Wisconsin	4	ACC	12
Arizona State	3	Mountain West	12
California	3	American	7
Georgia	3	Big Sky	4
Kentucky	3	Independent	4
NC State	3	Conference USA	3
San Diego State	3	Patriot	2
Stanford	3	CWUAA	1
Texas	3	Ivy	1
Texas Tech	3	MAC	1
LSU	3	Missouri Valley	1
Boise State	2	Ohio Valley	1
Kansas	2	SIAC	1
Alabama	2	Southland	1
Michigan State	2	Sun Belt	1
Nevada	2	SWAC	1
Notre Dame	2
Oklahoma State	2
Oregon	2
Penn State	2
Portland State	2
Purdue	2
South Carolina	2
UCLA	2
Utah State	2
Virginia Tech	2