I don't smoke cigars, but I was with a couple of friends who do, and they were looking for a smoke to top off the evening. Since I wasn't interested in the wares covering the walls and gracing the display cases, I was looking for something to do while I waited for my friends.

My eye was drawn to a small magazine rack that included a copy of the January 2002 issue of Cigar Aficionado. There was a picture of actor Kevin Spacey on the cover, and since Spacey stars in one of my favorite movies, American Beauty, I decided to check and see what the issue had to say.

I located the table of contents, and lo and behold there was a picture of some Florida State Seminoles gang-tackling a University of Miami running back. The picture accompanied an article called "The NCAA: The NFL's Farm System," and being that I'm much more interested in college football than I am cigars, or American Beauty, I took a look, flipping back to page 68.

Jackpot. The text of the article wasn't that interesting, but there on page 70 was a table titled "Colleges Sending the Most Players to the Pros." Each college received an overall ranking (total number of players sent to the pros), and each position was broken out separately (most quarterbacks, most running backs, etc.).

"This," I thought to myself, "is definitely material for 'Inside the Numbers.'"

First, a nod to the author of the original article, Kenneth Shouler. Shouler wrote The Major League Baseball Book of Fabulous Facts and Awesome Trivia, published by Harper Collins, and his article subsequently appeared in the February 2002 issue of Cigar Aficionado. You can visit their web site at http://www.cigaraficionado.com, where, by the way, the article is not posted.

The data presented in the article (and used here) is pretty extensive, but there is no mention of what date it applies to. In the text of the article, the author mentions the number of players on NFL rosters on opening day 2001 and the number of active players on October 8th, 2001, but he never explicitly says, "The numbers in the table represent the players on NFL rosters as of (Date X)."

Of course, what do you expect from Cigar Aficionado? It's not like they're a technical journal.

There is also no effort made to name the individual players, just the number of players from various college teams who were on NFL rosters.

In this article, we'll just list the top teams -- plus Virginia Tech -- in all the major categories. But all the teams for all the categories are included in the linked web page and linked Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, if you're reading the on-line version.

College teams are ranked according to the number of players they place in the pros for the following categories: overall players, quarterbacks, running backs, tight ends, wide receivers, offensive linemen, defensive linemen, linebackers, and defensive backs.

The overall rankings list the top 50 teams, but it winds up being 51 because of a 6-way tie for 46th.

The team that has the most players in the pros is � drum-roll please � Florida State. Big surprise, eh?

Okay, maybe not, but the fact that Notre Dame is tied with FSU for first is a surprise, at least for me. Both teams had 41 players on NFL rosters, according to Cigar Aficionado's figures. Here are the top 10 teams, plus Virginia Tech, their Big East brethren, and Virginia (again, all 51 teams are listed in the linked web page and Excel spreadsheet). In the following table, the notation "(T)" denotes a tie:

Are you surprised to see the Hokies that far down the list? I am, but if you think about it, it makes sense. Offensively, Antonio Freeman and (possibly) Andre Davis aside, the Hokies generally don't produce NFL-caliber wideouts. The same is true for fullbacks, tight ends, and even tailbacks, though I think Lee Suggs and perhaps Kevin Jones are going to change that.

Defensively, Tech's emphasis on smaller and faster defensive linemen means that they don't place many DL in the pros as defensive linemen, if at all. John Engelberger plays defensive line in the NFL, but former Hokie DE's Cornell Brown and Corey Moore were both converted to linebacker upon arrival in the NFL. Other Hokie DL's don�t go to the NFL at all.

The Whip linebacker in Tech's system is usually manned (optimally) by a player who has the size but probably doesn't have the speed to play safety in the NFL. For some reason, Tech hasn't produced NFL-quality players at the other linebacker spots since Mike Johnson in the mid-80's; even Jamel Smith and Michael Hawkes knocked around the league a bit but did not catch on.

The Hokies have, however, produced a number of NFL-quality defensive backs, whether they stuck in the NFL or not. Tyronne Drakeford, Antonio Banks, Torrian Gray, William Yarborough, Keion Carpenter, Anthony Midget, Ike Charlton, Cory Bird and even Nick Sorensen are all recent Hokie defensive backs who have made NFL rosters, with many of them still in the league.

Important Note: I should point out that as of January 21st, CBSSportsline.com listed 22 Hokies as being on NFL rosters, as of the end of the regular season, so a lot of Hokies jumped on board a lot of teams after the season started.

Sure, that makes you wonder how accurate the data in the rest of this report is, but if you think about it, data taken at any point in time is just a "snapshot" that you have to go with. The way rosters mix and change throughout the season means that the snapshot will be different depending upon when you take it. So let's forge ahead.

What about if you sort things out by conference? Here's a table showing the results:

The PAC 10 is impressive, placing 9 of its 10 teams (90%) in the Top 51. All other BCS conferences are in the 73%-78% range, which is average, except for the Big 12, which has just over 50% of its teams (7/12) in the Top 51. The Big 12 is strong at the top, but it sure is weak at the bottom.

The sixteen BCS-conference teams not ranked in the Top 51 are:

• ACC: Duke, Georgia Tech
• Big Ten: Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern
• Big 12: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Missouri, Texas Tech
• Big East: Rutgers, Temple
• PAC 10: Oregon State
• SEC: Arkansas, Kentucky, Vanderbilt.

Without a doubt, the biggest surprise on that list is Georgia Tech, and perhaps Arkansas. The other programs listed are historically not strong football programs, and that's reflected in the lack of players they place in the NFL.

A breakdown of players in the pros by position shows where the Hokies really clean up when it comes to putting players in the NFL. Read on. A lot of tables follow, but if you take the time to scan them, it's interesting.

In the interest of saving space, we'll list just the top few teams for placing QB's, RB's, TE's, etc. in the NFL, plus VT, Virginia, and Big East teams. Take a gander. I'll present each table with very little comment.

Washington being #1 is kind of odd, but Florida and Michigan being highly ranked is no surprise.

Virginia proves their reputation as a good school for running backs with their high placement on this list.

Tight end seems to be a crapshoot. Wake Forest, with four tight ends in the NFL? The fact that 18 teams have 2 tight ends in the pros tells you that tight end development is all over the map.

Big Ten teams Michigan and Ohio State have nearly as many receivers (14) in the NFL than all three Florida schools (Florida, FSU, and Miami -- 15 total) combined.

This is the only position ranking in which the Hokies appear -- the only one. And nearly half of the Hokie pros (6 out of 13) come at this position. That's a testament to the Hokies' dedication to the run and their development of offensive linemen. It's also worth noting that one Hokie "offensive lineman" in the pros, Waverly Jackson, actually played defensive tackle while at Tech.

Pittsburgh with five defensive linemen in the NFL? That's interesting. Otherwise, no surprises on this list.

Penn State -- "Linebacker U" -- is one of the six teams tied for 6th with 5 linebackers in the NFL. Vanderbilt, one of the worst BCS-conference programs year in and year out, has also placed 5 linebackers in the NFL. Go figure.

Memphis, a pretty stout defensive team over the years, is tied for 7th with 6 DB's in the NFL.

Despite their proclivity for offense, it's interesting to note that Florida State doesn't rank at the top at any of the offensive position rankings, but is at least tied for first at all defensive positions. Of the 41 Seminoles in the pros, 25 of them are defensive players, and just 16 are offensive players.

Texas A&M placing 5th overall with 34 players in the pros is surprising. They're a solid program with great tradition, but they haven't been consistently outstanding over the last 10-15 years. More importantly, you rarely hear about any of their players excelling at the college level. Texas A&M gets zero hype from the national media, so maybe they play better football than most of us Easterners (I'm talking about myself here) are aware of. Of the 34 players they have in the NFL, 19 of them are on the defensive side of the ball and 15 on the offensive side.

Schools from non-BCS conferences and small schools do not appear on the list with much frequency. The highest-ranked non-BCS school is San Diego State, tied for 36th overall with 15 players in the pros. Marshall and Southern Miss. are tied at 40th with Tech (13 players), and Fresno State is tied for 46th overall with 12 players. Other than those four schools, the other 47 teams in the top 51 are comprised of Notre Dame and schools from the six BCS conferences.

Continuing on the subject of small schools, Middle Tennessee State is ranked in quarterbacks with 2, and Jackson State is ranked in receivers with 4.

One program that I thought was notable by its absence in the overall rankings is Brigham Young. Regardless of what you think about BYU, they are a strong program year in and year out, but they did not place in the Top 51 programs for putting players in the NFL. In position rankings, they show up only once, with 2 tight ends.

As I said before, the data included in the spreadsheet and web page linked below are all-inclusive, representing the complete data set as presented in the Cigar Aficionado article.

You can download the data and view it, either as a web page, or as a Microsoft Excel 97 spreadsheet.

To view the data in web page format, go here:

http://www.techsideline.com/tslextra/issue015/playersinthepros.htm

To download the data in Microsoft Excel 97 spreadsheet format, head to this link:

http://www.techsideline.com/tslextra/issue015/playersinthepros.xls

(Right-click the link and do a "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" to save the Excel file to disk.)

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