How the Position U Rankings are calculated…
The Position U rankings are based on where prospects from each school were drafted in the NFL Draft. We chose this criteria because it is 1) the only objective measure we can use and 2) the players goal is to make it to the NFL. The higher they were drafted the more successful the athletes and the school were.
Once we decided on a criteria we needed to find a time frame from which we would calculate the rankings. If we go too far back we have too much data that is relatively meaningless; the coaches have changed, the game has changed and the rules have changed. Still we do need a substantive sample to gather data from, so we decided on the 10 most recent drafts. This provides a sample of data where the current coaches and staff were more involved and new coaches will be able to make their mark without fighting 100 years of history.
Next we decided on a system to score points for each draft pick the school had during the ten year period. We wanted to reward teams with players picked higher, while still giving credit to teams who had many players picked. To achieve this we decided on the following scoring system:
| Draft Pick | Points |
| 1 to 10 | 100 |
| 11 to 20 | 90 |
| 21 to 32 | 80 |
| 2nd Round | 60 |
| 3rd Round | 40 |
| 4th Round | 30 |
| 5th Round | 20 |
| 6th Round | 10 |
| 7th Round | 5 |
Using this formula we calculate how many points each team earned for each position in each of the last 10 drafts. We totaled these scores and created the Position U Rankings.
We do not do rankings for specialists or for FCS programs.
The rankings will be updated each year after the draft. If you believe there is an error or a team is missing please do not hesitate to contact us.