Over the weekend, word leaked out of the Wisconsin camp that the Badgers were interested in locking up a neutral site game against LSU.  The neutral site?  The Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field… which isn’t exactly neutral.

Earlier this week, LSU AD Joe Alleva admitted that his school is in discussions with Badger brass about the matchup:

“We’re still in the preliminary stages of talking to them.  It’s too early.  There’s too many things to consider.  The biggest thing to consider is the value of playing a game that far away versus the value of playing a game in Tiger Stadium.  That’s what it comes down to.

From a recruiting standpoint it’s a great game to tell kids you are going to play in Lambeau Field.  But Wisconsin is a long way away…

The novelty of playing at Lambeau is great, but there’s a whole lot of things to weigh.  The financial things.  We’ll see.”

Alleva said the schools are actually talking about playing two games against one another — one at Lambeau and one in Houston.

By now you know that the SEC owned last week’s NFL draft.  You’ve seen those numbers.  A record 63 players picked.  No other conference could match the number of prospects produced by the SEC East or SEC West divisions, much less the whole conference.

Of all 250+ players selected, right at 25% came from the Southeastern Conference.  Crazy.

But what did those 63 drafted players look like as recruits coming out of the high school and junior college ranks?  We’ve done the research for you and below you’ll find a couple of different tables.

The first is simply an alphabetical listing of all the SEC players selected last week.  Beside their names, positions, and schools we’ve listed the rounds in which they were chosen.  To the right of that you’ll find their high school class — or a “Juco” designation in some cases — and the number of star ratings they were given by Rivals.com as prospects:

So what does that tell us?  It tells us that 4- and 5-star recruits do indeed have a better chance of being drafted into the NFL than 2- or 3-star recruits.  Seems obvious, but many still dismiss recruiting rankings entirely.  At MrSEC.com, we believe they should be viewed as a compass, but not as a GPS.  Those rankings can give you an idea of in what direction a prospect is going, but they can’t provide a completely accurate picture of how his college trip will turn out.

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Former Georgia Bulldog and current ESPN analyst David Pollack revealed yesterday that his network’s “College GameDay” crew will be heading to South Carolina for the season-opening tilt between old rivals Georgia and Clemson.  At least that’s what he thinks is going to happen:

“We’ll be there, yeah.  I think with Clemson and their fanbase and how great they are, and GameDay hasn’t been there in a long time… I don’t know if it’s released yet, but I’m pretty sure.  I don’t see anywhere else.  I don’t think TCU and LSU would be the spot.  If you can go to Death Valley with those fans, they’ve got some awesome fans.  It’s an SEC-type atmosphere.”

The August 31st game between the Bulldogs and Tigers has already been slotted into ABC’s primetime broadcast, meaning that Kirk Herbstreit would have a much easier day of travel.

The leading returning rusher for LSU’s football team is now on indefinite suspension.  Following an arrest for simple battery over the weekend, it was announced today that Jeremy Hill would be barred from the Tiger program.  According to the school’s statement, head coach Les Miles will “let the incident play out through the legal system before making additional comments.”

Hill was charged with taking part in the beating of another student at a Baton Rouge bar.  Reportedly there is video of the incident showing Hill and another man beating the student to the point of unconsciousness.

If Hill is convicted of the simple battery charge, he would be in violation of a probation stemming from his guilty plea on a “carnal knowledge of a juvenile” charge in 2011.

As a freshman last season, Hill rushed for 755 yards on 142 carries with 12 touchdowns.

SEC fans love to shout it.  Fans of other leagues’ hate to hear it.  But every April, NFL franchises confirm it.

The Southeastern Conference plays a better brand of all than anyone else.

Last week, the FBS presidents announced the format, dates, and locations for their new College Football Playoff rotation.  The where, what and when are taken care of.  Now only the how remains.  As in how will a selection committee for the playoff be chosen.  And how will those committee members decide which teams will take part in the four-team field each season?

25% of this year’s NFL draft picks were produced by the 14 programs of the SEC

Everyone speaking on behalf of the new playoff claims that strength of schedule should be a large part of the selection process.  Whether that means a computer formula will be used — like college basketball’s RPI — is still open for debate, though most seem to think the new panel will not lean so heavily on a single criteria.

As discussed elsewhere on this site, will selection committee members favor schools whose teams play in leagues requiring more head-to-head conference games?  Will a resume featuring 10 games against any major conference foes look better than an SEC resume listing nine big league foes, including eight from America’s toughest conference?

Alabama, Florida, Georgia and LSU produced a combined 34 draft picks this year… more than any other conference in its entirety

Many writers in other parts of the country seem to believe that the SEC will continue to get love from the new selection panel based on the perception — hard to call it a perception — that the SEC is tougher.  But up until now, there has been a computer element involved in the BCS process.  The numbers provided by the computers helped drive the humans involved in team-picking to give SEC teams title shots.  Whether it was Alabama in 2011 — a team that didn’t win its own division — or two-loss LSU in 2007, the BCS process has been great for the SEC.

But there is nothing to suggest that will carry over into the new system.  In fact, one of the factors that helped turn college presidents around on the idea of a playoff so quickly was the SEC’s recent run of championships.  Keep the timeline in mind.  The BCS Championship Game paired Alabama and LSU together in January of 2012 and just months later — after decades of fighting the notion of a playoff — the powers-that-be had a playoff in the works.

It doesn’t take a Vanderbilt degree to figure out that an all-SEC title game spurred the leaders of other conferences into action.

The SEC East and the SEC West individually produced more picks in this year’s draft than any other conference

Moving forward, if there’s a conference that should get some benefit of the doubt in terms of strength of schedule it is clearly the Southeastern Conference.  In fact, with the SEC’s dominance over other conferences in the past 20 years of drafting history, a realist would say that in most years there should only be two open slots in the College Football Playoff with the other two reserved specifically for the SEC’s best.

Seven BCS titles in a row and nine of the 15 titles during the BCS era should drive that point home quite clearly.  Toss in an undefeated Auburn squad that should have gotten a shot in 2004 and it’s possible the SEC would have captured two-thirds of all the titles in a decade-and-a-half span.

But rival fans and — perhaps — jealous selection committee members with ties to other conferences and regions can argue away the championships.  “They put the SEC in the title game every year so that league’s got a 50/50 chance of winning the title… that doesn’t prove anything.”

But what does prove something and what can’t be argued away is the fact that the SEC is home to the greatest football players in the world outside of the National Football League.  As one NFL analyst working last week’s draft said: “There’s the AFC, the NFC, and the SEC.”

The 14 schools of the SEC produced 32 of the first 97 picks in this year’s draft

When the new playoff selection committee convenes for the first time after the 2014 college football season, those people should block out all biases.  They should forget about trying to “spread the wealth” of championships to other leagues.  They should not worry about trying to find one team from the East, one from the West, one from the North, and one from the South.

They should instead focus on who plays the best football.  And the last quarter-century worth of NFL draft data should tell them that the best football is played in the SEC.

In fact, that bit of information should stand out to them as if it were written in bold italics.

With the NFL draft behind us — and 63 more ex-SEC’ers selected to stock professional rosters — we can now take a look back over the past 20 years to see how the league’s current members have risen or fallen in terms of talent.  We’ll keep things nice and simple and show you the draft numbers from the past 10 years as compared to the 10 years prior.  Some of the changes are eye-popping.

Below you’ll find the picks from this past week’s draft on the left side of the table, just for comparison’s sake.  To the right of that, you’ll see the pick totals for each SEC school between 1994 and 2003.  Beside that column, the totals from 2004 through 2013 are listed.

Then, on the far right we’ve listed the change in draft numbers from one decade to the next for each school.  We warn you, some fans will have a hard time wiping away their smiles… others might just spend the day weeping in the office storage closet.

The numbers:

Observations:

*  Let’s start with the fastest riser — LSU.  The Tigers were middle of the pack in terms of NFL production between ’94 and ’03, but once Nick Saban opened all the valves on the Tigers’ Louisiana talent pipeline… forget about it.  LSU has produced 31 more NFL picks in the past decade than it did in the decade prior.  That’s three more pros per year on the Tiger roster.  Given that players are usually on a roster for four years that number is even more impressive.  In terms of a ballpark number, LSU has about 12 more NFL-capable players on its roster in a given year than it did a decade ago.  Even when those players are freshman or reserves, they’re still providing greater overall depth.  And that even raises the level of LSU’s practices.  Kudos to the Tigers.  Plus-31 is darn impressive.

*  If you’re wondering how Steve Spurrier (and Lou Holtz before him) began to raise South Carolina from the bottom of the SEC to the top just check USC’s roster.  The Gamecocks no longer cede the best players in their home state to Clemson and raiding SEC rivals.  They now go into Georgia and nab prospects just as Auburn and Tennessee have, traditionally.  Carolina has had 18 more players picked by NFL teams in the past decade than in the previous decade.  It’s not hard to make the correlation between a more talented roster and more victories.

*  Other schools seeing boosts of 10 or more pro picks?  Arkansas (plus-13), Missouri (plus-12), and Alabama (plus-10).  Hog fans need to credit Bobby Petrino and — though it might make a few of them sick — Houston Nutt for raising the talent level in Fayetteville.  Nutt was driven out of town with torches and pitchforks, but he began the Razorbacks’ talent swell.  A coach on the hot seat this year is Gary Pinkel, but he’s taken Mizzou from the bottom of the ’94-’03 column and increased the school’s draftees by 12 over the past decade.  Whether fans feel he’s worn out his welcome or not, Pinkel deserves many thanks for lifting Tiger football to the point that it no longer lags behind Kentucky and Vanderbilt in terms of talent.  Finally, there’s Alabama.  As he did at LSU, Saban has turned the Tide into one of the nation’s strongest football factories, cranking out pro prospects in bulk.  Anyone think that plus-10 number for Bama won’t grow larger when we run through this exercise again next year?

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A record 63 SEC players selected in the NFL draft…ACC second with 31 players…
Greatest disparity in picks between the two top conferences in any draft
Twenty-five percent of all players drafted came from SEC
Alabama and LSU had the most players selected of any SEC school – nine each
All SEC schools except Ole Miss had at least one player selected
LSU running back Jeremy Hill arrested and charged with simple battery after incident at bar
LSU and Wisconsin discussing possible neutral site football game
Tennessee forward Jarnell Stokes staying for junior season…had considered entering NBA draft
Follow SEC news year-round at MrSEC.com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/mrsec

Baton Rouge police arrested LSU running back Jeremy Hill early Saturday morning.  The charge is simple battery after an incident at an off-campus bar near LSU.

The 20-year old male victim told police he lost consciousness after being struck in the head numerous times.  A video camera reportedly caught Hill and a second unidentified man striking the victim.  Hill was arrested and released after posting a $500 bond.  Police are still searching for the second suspect.

This is not Hill’s first brush with authorities.  He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge involving a 2010 incident with a 14-year old girl and could be in violation of his probation stemming from that arrest.

Hill was LSU’s leading rusher last season with 755 yards and 12 touchdowns on 142 carries.

This is the second arrest involving the LSU program in the last few days.  Former defensive back Tharold Simon was arrested Thursday in his hometown on charges that involved public intimidation of a police officer.  Simon was drafted in the fifth round Saturday by Seattle.

The NFL draft wrapped up Saturday in New York with a series of record-setting performances by the SEC.

* Of the 254 players drafted, 63 were from the SEC.  That’s the most by a conference in a single draft ever.

* Those 63 players represent 25% of the entire draft.  But as much emphasis as there is on quantity, there’s an ever greater one on quality.  The SEC dominated the first three rounds of the draft with 32 of 97 picks.  That’s just under 33% of what the NFL considers the best talent available.

* Four schools from the SEC – Alabama, LSU, Florida and Georgia – combined for 34 draft picks.  That’s more than any single conference.

*The ACC came in second at 31.  That makes it the greatest disparity in picks between the two top conferences in any draft.  

* Alabama and LSU had the most picks from the conference with nine each.  Florida and Georgia with eight each and South Carolina with seven followed closely behind.

* Every SEC school with the exception of Ole Miss had at least one player selected in this year’s draft. Kentucky and Auburn had one apiece.  For Auburn, that’s only two selections in the last two years – the worst stretch for the Tigers since the early 1950′s.

Some Saturday highlights:

Alabama. Crimson Tide had five players – Nico Johnson, Barrett Jones, Jesse Williams, Quinton Dial and Michael Williams - selected Saturday.  34 Alabama players have been drafted in the last five years.  That’s more draft selections than the previous ten years.

Arkansas. Three of the four Razorback selections took place Saturday.  Quarterback Tyler Wilson is headed to the Oakland Raiders (4th round), wide receiver Cobi Hamilton was taken by Cincinnati (6th round)  while  tight end Chris Gragg was picked by the Buffalo Bills (7th round).

Auburn.  There was more activity in the free agent market for Auburn than in the draft, including tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen signing with the St. Louis Rams and running back Onterio McCalebb expected to sign with the Cincinnati Bengals.  Corey Lemonier (3rd round) was Auburn’s sole draft selection.

Florida. Four Gators were drafted on Saturday.  Three of them -  outside linebacker Jelani Jenkins in the fourth round and tailback Mike Gillislee and kicker Caleb Sturgis in the fifth round – are headed to the Miami Dolphins. The only one not drafted by Miami will also stay in the state.  Safety Josh Evans was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the first pick of the sixth round. Six undrafted  Gators sign  free-agent deals.

Georgia. Four Bulldogs were drafted Saturday. The eight total selections for Georgia tied for the most ever – equaling the output from 2002. Nose tackle Kwame Gathers, who left following his junior year, was not drafted. Gathers reportedly signed as a free agent with the San Diego Chargers.

Kentucky. The Wildcats lone draft choice was Larry Warford, picked Friday night in the third round by the Detroit Lions.

LSU. The school-record nine selections for the Tigers included eight LSU juniors who departed the program early.

Mississippi State. Defensive tackle Josh Boyd became the Bulldogs third selection of the draft when he was taken by the Green Bay Packers in the fifth round. Wide receiver Chad Bumphis and linebacker Cameron Lawrence signed free-agent deals.

Missouri. No draft activity Saturday for the Tigers. Missouri had two picks – Sheldon Richardson in the first round to the New York Jets and linebacker Zavier Gooden in the third round to the Tennessee Titans. Four Mizzou players did sign free agent contracts, including wide receiver T.J. Moe, who’s headed to New England.

Ole Miss.  Rebels didn’t have a  player drafted for the first time since 1999, but several players were quick to sign free agent deals, including former Ole Miss basketball star Murphy Holloway who signed with the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.

South Carolina. Busy final draft day for the Gamecocks, who had six of their seven players drafted Saturday.  The final day haul included running back Marcus Lattimore (4th round to San Francisco) and the final pick of the draft with tight end Justice Cunningham – 2013′s Mr. Irrelevant.

Tennessee. Vols quarterback Tyler Bray goes undrafted.  He’s signing a free agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs.  Former Tenessee tight end Mychel Rivera was drafted Saturday- taken in the sixth round by the Oakland Raiders. Defensive tackle Montori Hughes – who had  a brief career at Tennessee before finishing at UT-Martin – was selected by Indianapolis in the fifth round.

Texas A&M.  Aggies had their best draft performance since 2008 with five players taken.  Linebacker Sean Porter is headed to Cincinnati (4th round) and wide receiver Ryan Swope (6th round) was selected by Arizona.  Seven Aggies signed free-agent deals.

Vanderbilt. The Commodores two draft selections both took place Saturday.  Running back Zac Stacy is headed to the St. Louis Rams (5th round) and offensive lineman Ryan Seymour was selected by Seattle in the seventh round.

As expected, the Southeastern Conference set a new standard in talent production last night in New York.  In Round One of the 2013 National Football League Draft, a whopping 12 ex-SEC players were selected by professional clubs.

Seven different schools were represented in that batch of first-rounders.

The league also produced six of the first 15 picks overall:

Interesting First Night Tidbits:

*  Alabama led the way with three first-round picks, all of them going back-to-back in slots nine, 10, and 11.  Some projections had had the Tide with as many as five first-round picks.

*  Florida, Georgia, and LSU each had two players selected in Round One with Tennessee and SEC newcomers Missouri and Texas A&M each producing one player.

*  The Minnesota Vikings sent an eye-popping four picks to the New England Patriots for the right to trade up and grab Patterson, the former Tennessee receiver.

*  Eight of the SEC’s 12 first-rouunders will be playing in the AFC this fall.  Three will be featured in the AFC North alone (Mingo to the Browns, Jones to the Steelers, and Elam to the Super Bowl champion Ravens).

*  The New York Jets (Milliner, Richardson) and the Minnesota Vikings (Floyd, Patterson) each nabbed two SEC players during the draft’s first round.

*  With six rounds remaining, the SEC needs 30 more selections to match its 42-man count in the 2012 NFL draft, the most players sent from any one conference last year.