College football’s Position U 2022

Think your school has the best history of churning out star defensive backs? Elite receivers? The best QBs? Get in line, buddy.

Every year, fans rage on social media, players wear branded shirts and schools promote their teams as the top producer of talent at a given position, and every year, another fan base chimes in to offer a compelling counterargument. The problem is, there’s no set formula for who gets to be Quarterback U or Linebacker U. Success is in the eye of the beholder — or at least on the thumbs of the tweeter.

But ESPN Stats & Information has tried to add some method to the madness and come up with something that, if not entirely definitive, at least offers some data behind the bragging rights.

Here’s how it works:

We’re counting players since 1998 only. Why 1998? It seemed a good breaking point, as it was the start of the BCS era that best represents modern college football. We know Notre Dame would love to claim Paul Hornung in the race for, um, Halfback U, but we’re trying to keep it to the era of players today’s recruits might be most familiar with.

What counts as success? We narrowed it down to a few key categories. Schools got points for all-conference and All-America selections, along with points for being drafted (weighted by round) and for success at the next level. For that last category, we looked at only the first four years of a player’s career (beyond that, the NFL should get credit for development) using Pro Football Reference’s weighted career value.

Dealing with transfers is tricky, too. When Jordan Addison gets drafted next year, will he count for Pitt or USC? Sorry to add some more salt to the wounds for Panthers fans, but we’ve made the call that NFL data counts only toward the school a player last suited up for.

Got all that? Let’s get on to the rankings.

Jump to a position: QB | RB
WR | TE | OL
DL | LB | DB | Kicker | Punter

Oklahoma remains QBU for the third straight year, but the Sooners are now treading into uncharted waters.