Big 12 Notes

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Big 12 Notes – Spring/Summer

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April 27th

… Foe Pause … 

CU’s Big Saturday gives Buff Coaches a selling point

The Shedeur Sanders soap opera played out on the national stage over the weekend. From about 7:00 p.m., MT, on Thursday to around 1:00 p.m., MT, on Saturday (or about TEN hours of air time on ESPN), the “Mel Kiper Best Available” list on the scroll, popping up every few minutes, listed: “1. Shedeur Sanders – Quarterback – Colorado”.

ESPN’s lead story on its NFL Draft page on Friday was about the fall of Shedeur Sanders out of the first round, with the New York Giants trading back into the first round … to take quarterback Jaxson Dart from Ole Miss.

ESPN’s lead story on its NFL Draft page on Saturday was about the fall of Shedeur Sanders out of the second and third rounds, with three more quarterbacks taken before him.

Finally, with the sixth pick of the fifth round – pick No. 144 overall – Shedeur was off the board.

Perhaps as important for Coach Prime and the CU coaching staff, though, was the drafting in the sixth round of wide receivers LaJohntay Wester (by Baltimore) and Jimmy Horn (by Carolina).

Now, there are certainly no guarantees that Wester or Horn will make the final roster of their respective teams, but that is almost beside the point.

What matters is that CU had four players taken in the 2025 NFL Draft. Certainly not double digit selections, like Ohio State (14) or Georgia (13), but that isn’t the arena within which CU coaches are currently competing for recruits.

CU doesn’t have NIL money the big boys have. CU’s pitch to transfers and recruits is to not worry about getting the bag in college. “Come to CU, be coached by Hall of Famers. We’ll get you to the NFL … then you will get paid”.

That sales pitch would ring pretty hollow if all CU had to show from the 2025 Draft was Travis Hunter and … Shedeur being drafted as a backup quarterback.

But now …

Here is a listing of the 2025 NFL Draft by school:

• 14 – Ohio State
• 13 – Georgia
• 12 – Texas
• 10 – Oregon
• 8 – Ole Miss
• 7 – Alabama, Michigan, Miami, LSU, Florida
• 6 – Notre Dame, Maryland
• 5 – South Carolina, Penn State, Virginia Tech, UCLA, Iowa
• 4 – Tennessee, Iowa State, Cal, Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Syracuse

In the Big 12, the list looks like this:

• Arizona – 4 … Colorado – 4 … Iowa State – 4 … Oklahoma State – 4
• Kansas State – 3
• Kansas – 2 … TCU – 2 … Texas Tech – 2 … UCF – 2
• Arizona State – 1 … Cincinnati – 1 … Utah – 1 … West Virginia – 1
• Baylor – 0 … BYU – 0 … Houston – 0

National programs which had fewer draft selections in the 2025 NFL Draft than did Colorado:

• SEC … Texas A&M, Missouri, Auburn, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas, Vanderbilt
• Big Ten … USC, Nebraska, Minnesota, Rutgers, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Illinois, Purdue, Washington
• ACC … Clemson, Pitt, Boston College, SMU, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Florida State, Virginia, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Cal

Now, having four picks in the Draft is not great, especially when three of the four Buffs taken were in the later rounds, but it’s a very good start. The four picks equals the total number of Buffs who heard their name called in the past five NFL Drafts combined.

So, dear recruits, you can come to Boulder, get paid less than you would at other name schools, and still make it to the league (where the guaranteed salary for the lowest paid player is $800,000 per year).

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The future is now in the race to the Super Conference

It’s important for CU to remain competitive over the next few years, hoping to get an invite to the Big Boy table in a few years, when the Super Conference is formed.

But the future may be coming even sooner than we thought.

In total, 150 of the 257 players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft finished their collegiate careers at SEC or Big Ten schools. Including players from the ACC and Big 12, the four power conferences made up 223 of the 257 picks in the draft, and the staggering 86.7 percent figure demonstrates how talent now rises through the collegiate ranks before making its way to the NFL. The Mountain West and AAC tied for the most picks of any Group of Five conference with six each. Eight players went from the FCS level to the NFL.

But, Big 12 and ACC, don’t look now, but the gulf between the Big Two and the Lesser Two is widening as well. Here is the breakdown by conference:

• SEC … 79 selections;
• Big Ten … 71;
• ACC … 42;
• Big 12 … 31;
• Notre Dame … 6;
• Mountain West … 6 (CSU: 1);
• American … 6;
• MAC … 4

So, for those scoring at home, out of the Power Four, out of the 223 picks, 150, or 67%, played for the Big Ten and SEC; only one-third came out of the Big 12 and ACC.

And it’s not likely that the gap will be narrowing anytime soon.

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It’s the same at the top of the Draft as well … 

Take a look at how the first round of the NFL Draft played out, with picks by conference:

• SEC: 15
• Big Ten: 11
• Big 12: 2 (CU’s Travis Hunter No. 2; Arizona’s WR Tetairoa McMillan No. 8)
• ACC: 2 (Miami’s QB Cam Ward No. 1; North Carolina’s RB Omarion Hampton No. 22)
• Mountain West: 1 (Boise State’s RB Ashton Jeanty No. 6)
• FCS: 1 (North Dakota State’s OG Grey Zabel No. 18)

Yup. That’s 26 of the 32 first round NFL Draft picks (81%) coming from the Big Two, with a grand total of four from the Big 12 and ACC. Ohio State had as many first round picks as the Big 12 and ACC had combined.

The division between the have’s and the have not’s in the FBS is getting even greater. But the division between the Big Ten/SEC and the Big 12/ACC is growing at an alarming rate.

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This post, about the Spring/Summer game, from the 2025 Season, is filed under Article.
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