The SEC trailed the Big Ten in overall draft picks after the first round on Thursday night, but Friday night provided a different story.
As in, a familiar story. Because on Day 2 of the draft, the SEC took over the narrative, at least for one day, and overtook the Big Ten for overall number of draft picks. So, going into Day 3 on Saturday afternoon, when Rounds 4-7 are staged, the SEC is in its familiar spot of having more draft picks than any other conference in the land.
After the Big Ten had 10 first-round picks on Thursday night to the SEC’s 7, the SEC had a whopping 29 players selected in Rounds 2 and 3 on Friday night, giving the SEC a grand total of 36 players selected after the first 3 rounds of this draft.
There have been exactly 100 selections made in this draft through the first 3 rounds, so the SEC has 36% of the picks right now as we enter Saturday’s Day 3. The Big Ten is now in second place among conferences with 29 selections, meaning the Big Ten only had 19 players taken in the second and third rounds on Friday night.
Leading the charge for the SEC so far in this draft is Texas A&M, which has 7 selections so far through 3 rounds. Ohio State, not surprisingly, has a draft-high 8 selections so far, after seeing 4 Buckeyes get drafted in the first 11 picks on Thursday night.
The ACC and Big 12 are tied for third in selections after 3 rounds with 14 picks each.
Will the SEC hold off the Big Ten and the other power conferences and have the most overall selections in this draft? That answer will come early Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
The SEC will have plenty of teams gunning for a College Football Playoff spot in 2026, like the conference does every year. Here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about the SECs best teams and their shot to make the Playoff this fall:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
