Conference Call
Which Conferences Produce the Best QBs and RBs?
By Appaloosa
February 2006
Sorting Quarterbacks and Running Backs by Conference
Certain schools and conferences have a reputation for producing high quality NFL players at specific positions. The two positions that have the highest profile are quarterback and running back. It seems that for quite a while the best quarterbacks have come from the PAC 10. On the other side of the coin lately running backs from the Big Ten players have garnered a poor reputation.
After a recent discussion on the relative merits of quarterbacks from the PAC 10 and the SEC, I decided to conduct a little study to determine which conferences have produced the highest quality quarterbacks and running backs since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. To compose my data set, I selected the quarterbacks and running backs (excluding full backs) from each year’s Pro Bowl roster, up to a maximum of six in each position for each year (1970 – 2005). Where there were more than six at the position, I chose those who had been originally elected to the Pro Bowl and deleted injury replacements. In other words, for this year I included Palmer and Brady rather than McNair and Green on the quarterbacks list. This was done because I did not want more recent Pro Bowls with more players to skew the results, and the player originally elected to the position is likely to be considered of higher quality than an injury replacement. Of course there were many players with multiple Pro Bowl appearances, which meant that they tended to count extra for their conference. But as multiple Pro Bowl appearances are an extra measure of quality, I decided to count a player each time he was selected.
Once the full list of Pro Bowl quarterbacks and running backs had been composed, I identified which school the player in question had played for prior to entering the NFL and tied that school to a conference. In order to avoid the complication of the recent shifts in conference composition and the demise of the Southwestern Conference, I used the most recent conference memberships. Therefore, Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College were included in the ACC rather than the Big East even though most of the current and past NFL players from those schools attended them while they were still part of the Big East.
In addition to assessing the total number of Pro Bowl appearances for the entire 36 years from 1970 through 2005, I divided each group by decade to determine if there has been a shift over time in the conferences that have produced the best players at quarterback and running back. Some of my findings were predictable but others were a little surprising.
Best Conferences 1970 – 2005
The following conferences produced Pro Bowl quarterbacks in significant numbers from 1970 through 2005: the six major conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big Twelve, PAC 10, and SEC), Notre Dame, Conference USA, Mountain West, and Western Athletic Conference (WAC). It is interesting to note that while the Mid-American Conference (MAC) has garnered a lot of attention lately for producing NFL quarterbacks (as in Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich, and Ben Roethlesburger) no Pro Bowl quarterback to date has been from the MAC.
By far the most dominant conference for producing Pro Bowl quarterbacks is the PAC 10, which produced 49 Pro Bowl appearances out of a total of 193, or more than 25%. The other major conferences ranged between 6 and 10 percent of the total except for the Big Twelve, which only produced three quarterback Pro Bowl appearances in 36 years, which is less than the appearances for Notre Dame (13), Conference USA (13), Mountain West (12), or even the WAC (4).
The distribution of running backs was much more even among the major conferences. Although the Big Twelve was the most frequent with 44 appearances out of a total of 215, or slightly over 20%, the SEC was only slightly lower, with 39 appearances (18%). The ACC, Big Ten, and PAC 10 had totals in the 20’s, while the Big East lagged behind the rest of the majors with a total of 12. The major conferences dominated the ranks of the Pro Bowl running backs slightly more than the ranks of the quarterbacks. More than 69% of the running backs in the Pro Bowl attended major conference schools whereas the number of quarterbacks from major conferences was closer to 60%. The Mountain West accounted for 12 Pro Bowl running backs, Notre Dame for 10, and Conference USA for 7. The current WAC was completely shut out during the period of the study.
Best Conferences by Decade
During the decade 1970 – 1979, the quarterback position in the Pro Bowl was dominated by the SEC, with 12 appearances, followed by the Big Ten with 7. During this era, the SEC was represented by such familiar names as Joe Namath, Fran Tarkenton, Ken Stabler, and Archie Manning. However, with the close of the decade, the SEC appeared to drop off the map as a producer of quality quarterbacks. It was not until Archie’s son, Peyton entered the league that the SEC was again represented at quarterback in the Pro Bowl.
During the 1980’s and 1990’s the quarterback position was dominated by the PAC 10. During the 80’s, the PAC produced 13 Pro Bowl quarterback appearances. The next best major conference (ACC and Big East tie) had five. The PAC 10 was even more dominating in the 1990’s with 25 Pro Bowl quarterbacks, while the ACC was runner up with 7. However, since the start of the new century, the PAC 10 has been poorly represented in the Pro Bowl by quarterbacks. The Big Ten currently holds the lead with six appearances by four different quarterbacks, followed by the SEC with five appearances, and the ACC and Big East are tied with four. However, the totals for the SEC and the Big East are somewhat deceiving since both of these conferences have been represented by a single QB in the Pro Bowl since 2000. The PAC 10 is falling behind with only two appearances, although those appearances were by two different quarterbacks.
During the 1970’s the running back position was dominated by the Big Ten (Franco Harris accounted for most of these) and the Big Twelve, with 10 Pro Bowl appearances each. With the 1980’s, the Big Ten ceased to be a major source of running backs while the number originating from the PAC 10 and SEC increased. By the 1990’s, the running back position in the Pro Bowl began to be dominated by the SEC with 17 appearances, while the Big Twelve remained a steady producer of quality running backs with 13 Pro Bowl appearances. In the early years of the 21st Century, the Big Twelve and SEC are again among the leaders in producing Pro Bowl running backs, but the ACC has also accounted for 8 Pro Bowl appearances.
In contrast to the Pro Bowl quarterbacks, who have been dominated by a few individuals, most of the major conferences have produced multiple Pro Bowl running backs. For example, the SEC has been represented by six different running backs in Hawaii, and the ACC by four individuals.
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