Daily Blog - Friday June 5th

The magazine is hitting the book stores and newsstands across the country and should be out in 70% of the places by this weekend with the official on-sale date of June 9th (Tuesday).

The past few weeks I have been giving you some advance articles from the magazine to wet your appetite for the upcoming year. Today I will give you the results of the Draft Day Party Hangover which is on page 308.

For a complete analysis of how I devised this chart check out this years or even last years magazine as it gives you those details. Basically I assign a point total for players selected in the different rounds of the draft and here is what the numbers have totaled.

Over the last 12 years teams that earned more points than the previous year and accumulated....
12 or more points - Weaker or same record 164 of 216 (75.9%)
24 or more points - Weaker or same record 47 of 55 (85.4%)
35 or more points - Weaker record 13 of 15 (86.7%)

With that in mind, this year there were 26 teams that earned 12 points or more from their losses in the NFL draft. Six teams on that list had LESS points than last year in USC (45), Texas (15), Oklahoma (14), LSU (14), Boston College (12) & Auburn (12).

One thing I pointed out in past years is that the National Champ does have a good shot at appearing on these lists. In the past 12 years there have been 13 National Champs (LSU and USC were co-champs in ‘03) with 11 of the 13 having earned 12 or more points in the draft the previous year. The only exceptions were ‘06 Florida (7 pts) and ‘08 Florida (11 pts). The two teams that overcame the biggest draft losses and still managed to win a title were the 2001 Miami Hurricanes, who had 34, and the 1998 Tennessee Volunteers (32). Seven of the 13 actually earned 20 or more points in the draft loss category.

According to past history, in reviewing the 20 teams in the box below, only 4 or 5 will manage to improve their record this year, BUT the National Champ is very likely to be one of the overall 20 teams on the Draft Day Hangover List.

In the next few weeks I will be EXPANDING the analysis of this chart and looking at the opposite end of the spectrum. How have teams done that lost a lot of players to the draft last year but very little this year? Once we find out how they have done (I would imagine most improved their record) then I will supply you with this years teams that fit the category. It will be in one of my daily blogs. I did not have room in the magazine for this but do have unlimited space on the website!

90 Days until the start of football!