Top 20 College Football Schools by 2008 NFL Player Salaries

Today is signing day in college football. The top high school football players have spent many months trying to decide where to spend their next three to five years. For those who hope to play on Sunday, here's one more thing to consider.

I've ranked every school in the country by the total amount their players earned in the NFL in 2008. This may tell us two related things: (i) where do the guys who go pro go to school? and (ii) which schools turn their players into successful pros? Here's the top 20:

RANK - SCHOOL - 2008 NFL SALARIES - (# of Players)
1. LSU $131,780,008 (40)
2. Miami (FL) $123,972,638 (48)
3. Michigan $89,122,395 (39)
4. Florida State $82,833,470 (38)
5. Ohio State $82,427,649 (37)
6. Tennessee $82,051,202 (37)
7. Georgia $81,811,820 (38)
8. USC $80,566,340 (34)
9. Florida $76,886,000 (31)
10. Texas $71,818,360 (36)
11. Notre Dame $70,977,740 (32)
12. North Carolina $62,526,773 (22)
13. Auburn $59,955,654 (30)
14. Virginia $58,729,980 (22)
15. Purdue $54,093,060 (23)
16. Iowa $53,861,125 (22)
17. Maryland $53,058,000 (24)
18. Wisconsin $52,682,784 (22)
19. Boston College $51,433,520 (22)
20. Virginia Tech $51,356,013 (29)

The only real surprise at the top of the list is the total dominance of LSU. Both LSU and Miami outstrip the rest of the field by a wide margin, but LSU does it with 8 fewer players than Miami. Consequently, LSU has the highest average compensation per player among teams with 20 or more players in the NFL. (Eastern Illinois had the highest average overall at $12,866,600 - thanks Tony Romo!)

No real surprises in the top 10. These are all perenial powerhouses we would expect to see. Places 4-7 are remarkably close together. Florida State, Ohio State, Tennessee and Georgia all have 37 or 38 players in the pros with salaries that add up to amounts within $1,000,000 of each other.

In my opinion, the chart gets interesting after the top 10. Notre Dame has done poorly that last several years, but their players seem to be making significant contributions in the pros. North Carolina is an even bigger surprise. They haven't finished in the AP or USA Today top 25 in at least 6 years. Nonetheless, they made 12th place with only 22 players.

Source data: USA Today

UPDATE: The integrity of the USA Today salary data has been brought into question. Marcus Hamilton, a CB out of Virginia on the Bears' roster, is listed as receiving a $10 million bonus in 2008. Not so plausible considering he went undrafted. So, Virginia probably needs to be discounted by about $10 mil, knocking them out of the top 20.