Last week, I posted this article analyzing NFL team/college pairings in the NFL Draft. In that study, I included every draft pick since 1936, as the goal was to get a flavor of NFL history. However, I thought it would be fun to do the same thing but to look at more recent time periods. Today’s post will be mostly tables, so hopefully you guys can add the analysis. Let’s start by looking at all (but only) the drafts in the post-merger period in NFL history.

NFL Drafts from 1970 to 2013

Top Five Schools for each Team

The Rams/UCLA connection is still at the top of the list, but the Pittsburgh/Pittsburgh combination falls off. In fact, the Chiefs and 49ers have drafted as many Panthers since the merger (10) as the Steelers. The table below shows the top five schools for each team:

All teams to draft 10+ players from the same school since 1970

This list displays all team/college pairings with at least ten players. For space reasons, the table defaults by showing the top 50, but you can use the search function and the arrow boxes at the bottom of the table to see the rest of the list.

Over the last 30 years (1984 to 2013)
If we look at only the drafts from the last 30 years, the Bears/Sooners top the list. Chicago drafted 14 players from Oklahoma since 1984, with Tommie Harris being the best. Here are the top five schools for each team

All teams to draft 7+ players from the same school since 1984

Over the last 20 years (1994 to 2013)

The local connections really die down once we limit things to just the past two decades. Unsurprisingly, the southeast portion of the country is the one most likely to stay local.

Top Five Schools for each Team

All teams to draft 5+ players from the same school since 1994

Over the last 10 years (2004 to 2013)

No connection over the past decade has been as strong as Cincinnati-Georgia.  It started with Robert Geathers in 2004, and then the Bengals selected David Pollack and Odell Thurman in the first two rounds of the 2005 draft.  In 2010, Cincinnati went back to the Bulldogs front seven and hit a home run with Geno Atkins in the fourth round.  In 2011, A.J. Green was the team’s first round pick, and the Bengals spent a fourth round pick that year (Clint Boling) and the following year (Orson Charles) on more Georgia players.  In the third round this year, Cincinnati drafted safety Shawn Williams.

Top Five Schools for each Team

All teams to draft 3+ players from the same school since 2004

Finally, let’s close with a list of the teams that have drafted at least 3 players from the same school over the last five years:

All teams to draft 3+ players from the same school