Here's a little thought experiment. Instead of looking solely at wins (because what does Wake beating Vandy really tell us), let's look at who the NFL drafts from and how it's distributed. The table below represents the Top 80% of all players drafted in the 2024 NFL draft and lists the number of players in that cohort as well as the number of teams those players were from. This removes the effect of one player coming from one team (e.g., the Missouri Valley Conference). Then, if we look at the Coefficient of Variation, we can see how concentrated those players are into just a few teams vs. more evenly distributed ... hence, the potential for a more competitive conference. The higher the COV, the more talent is concentrated into just a few teams, the lower the COV, the more teams have more players drafted.
Of the Big 3 conferences, the B1G sends the most players to the NFL but ... also has the highest COV, meaning that it is just a few teams (specifically, Michigan/Washington, Oregon, and Penn State). The ACC is heavily skewed by FSU. Ironically, for all the SEC haters, the SEC sent almost as many as the B1G but had the lowest variance .. so teams tend to be more competitively matched from a pure talent point of view.
Not perfect, but an interesting look. Should FSU and Clemson leave the ACC, the ACC numbers would plummet which means that there wouldn't be as much talent in the conference but .... it would be more competitive on a purely talent point of view.
So what is it you want to market? To who? For what purpose? Both the B1G and SEC are large, land-grant universities with lots of fans and the most highly sought after talent (based on how the NFL grades talent).
| Teams | Players | | COV |
Big 10 | 13 | 71 | | 0.64 |
SEC | 13 | 70 | | 0.51 |
ACC | 10 | 40 | | 0.60 |
Big 12 | 4 | 11 | | 0.18 |
FBS Independents | 1 | 7 | | NA |
PAC 12 | 2 | 6 | | 0 |
AAC | 1 | 2 | | NA |
| 44 | 207 | | |