Which Schools Develop The Most Productive NFL Players?

Often times, schools are evaluated on the number of NFL products that they produce. Sam Walker with the WSJ has done a nice piece on assessing what school's turn out the most productive NFL players, different from the schools that produce the most. Fortunately, the article is free to all. My theory that West Coast football is an awful product receives some validation with only 6 of the Top 30 schools in terms of producing successful NFL players hailing from the West Coast (Thank goodness for ESPN Gameplan). The list is dominated by the Big 10, SEC and ACC with 17 out of the 30, and throw Notre Dame in with this group, and you are left with the Top 12 schools in terms of producing successful NFL products.

The ranking also considers how teams are perceived via NFL teams in terms of the draft. For instance, North Carolina is highly underrated and Miami is highly overrated, meaning UNC players have a higher success rate than Miami players. This is a bit flawed because of the pure numbers that these teams put in the draft. It's interesting that Auburn ranks very highly (#2) in this category, and also ranks in the top 10 in terms of players getting drafted into the NFL.