A local sports radio station here in Portland had an NFL scout on as a guest yesterday to talk about the Pac12. During the interview the scout ranked the conferences in order of overall future NFL talent.
1. SEC ("By far, the conference with the most NFL talent. None of the other conferences are even close.")
2. PAC12 ("A consistent producer of NFL talent at every position. Everyone knows about the Pac12's quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, and defensive backs. But this league consistently produces quality NFL starters at linebacker and defensive linemen, too, which the rest of the country doesn't usually think of when it thinks of the Pac12.")
3. Big1G ("Overall, the first three rounds of NFL draftable talent in the Big10 has declined quite a bit. We think it is because of turmoil and coaching changes. But it is still a league with plenty of future NFL players. We think it will bounce back, talent-wise, as things settle down and stabilize at Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State.")
4. ACC ("Florida State and Clemson are loaded. Vtech and Miami have fallen off some.")
5. The Big12 ("What has happened in that league is shocking. Losing Texas A&M and Nebraska obviously hurt the overall pool of draftable talent, but we didn't expect Texas and Oklahoma to drop off the way they have. Those two programs have nowhere near the future NFL prospects on campus today that they had five years ago. The whole league is just not as talented anymore, especially in the numbers of players we project as players who will be drafted in the first three rounds.")