The 2024 NFL Draft concluded on Saturday with a busy four rounds of action that featured far more defensive players than we saw in the early rounds, but also a strong reflection of the trends we saw in college football the previous season. The SEC finished with the most draft picks of any conference, as has come to be expected after notable dominance in that category over the last 10-15 years. However, the Pac-12 backed up a strong year on the field with a strong year in the draft by producing the second-most draft picks.
The irony, of course, being that the Pac-12 has a terrific NFL Draft showing just as the league is splintering, with four teams heading to the Big Ten (USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington), four teams heading to to the Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah) and two teams joining the ACC (Cal, Stanford) later this summer. But the draft picks we saw this weekend were players from Pac-12 competition, so the league gets to celebrate one last time with one of the top non-SEC counts in college football.
In terms of the school count, there was some intrigue as to whether Michigan would challenge Georgia's record for the most NFL Draft picks in a single year. Though the Wolverines will end up with even more players getting camp invites, the final total on draft picks is just 13, which is two players short of the Bulldogs' record from 2022. Michigan did finish as the school with the most draft picks overall, leading a group that also included Texas (11), Alabama (10), Florida State (10) and Washington (10).
Texas' 11 NFL Draft picks were the most in program history for the seven-round era, and it follows a season that saw the Longhorns win their first Big 12 title since 2009 and make their first-ever College Football Playoff appearance. Steve Sarkisian's program saw two players picked in the first round (Byron Murphy, Xavier Worthy), three players picked in the second (Jonathon Brooks, AD Mitchell, T'Vondre Sweat), and then six players picked on Day 3, with tight end JT Sanders (Round 4 to the Panthers), offensive lineman Christian Jones (Round 5 to the Cardinals), running back Keilan Robinson (Round 5 to the Jaguars), linebacker Jaylan Ford (Round 5 to the Saints), defensive back Ryan Watts (Round 6 to the Steelers) and wide receiver Jordan Whittington (Round 6 to the Rams) rounding out the group.
Check out the full breakdown of picks by conferences and picks by school below:
2024 NFL Draft picks by conference
- SEC -- 59
- Pac-12 -- 43
- Big Ten -- 42
- ACC -- 41
- Big 12 -- 31
- Independent -- 8
- Sun Belt -- 6
- American -- 5
- Conference USA -- 3
- Mountain West -- 2
- MAC -- 2
2024 NFL Draft pick by school
- Michigan -- 13
- Texas -- 11
- Alabama -- 10
- Florida State -- 10
- Washington -- 10
- Oregon -- 8
- Georgia -- 8
- Penn State -- 8
- Notre Dame -- 7
- USC -- 7
- Missouri -- 6
- LSU -- 6
- Clemson -- 6
- Utah -- 5
- Auburn -- 5
- Illinois, Iowa, Louisville, Kentucky, Ohio State, Miami, South Carolina, Texas A&M -- 4
- Arizona, Duke, Kansas State, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Pitt, TCU, Tennessee, Wake Forest, Washington State -- 3
- Arkansas, Boston College, Kansas, Marshall, Maryland, NC State, Purdue, South Dakota State, Texas Tech, Troy, Tulane, UCF, UCLA, UTEP, Wisconsin -- 2
