What Does the ‘26 NFL Draft Mean to the Husker Football Program? – Sports Illustrated

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One of the things we learned coming out of this year’s NFL draft is that only one Husker (RB Emmett Johnson) was taken. One player.  And as good as we think Johnson was in ‘25, he wasn’t taken until the fifth round as the 161st overall pick.
One pick.  But Nebraska did worse in ‘24 when the Huskers had zero picks.
Will the Big Red Rebuild of Memorial Stadium help attract better talent?  Will NU have to up its NIL and rev-share spending?  Possibly.  Is money the most important factor?  Not necessarily.
Which schools had the most draft picks this year?
The leader is Ohio State with 11.  Coming in a close second is Alabama with 10 players taken,
It should come as no surprise that those two programs would be rated that high.
So who are some of the other teams that had more draft picks than Nebraska?  The usual suspects are Georgia (8), Indiana (8), Texas (6) and Michigan (6).
What is a bit surprising is some lesser teams that edged Nebraska with a total of two picks.  Some are Toledo, Navy, Wake Forest, North Carolina State and Northwestern.  The kicker is that North Dakota State-an FCS program also had more NFL picks (2) than Nebraska.  The Bison are a perennial powerhouse in the FCS.
The question is, how can an FCS football program fare better in the NFL draft than the University of Nebraska? Was this a one year aberration?
No.  Over the past ten years, Nebraska has had 16 players chosen in the NFL draft while the Bison have had seventeen.  Gulp.
What makes that even harder to explain is how much (or little) money these two programs spend on their respective football programs.
Nebraska leads with a budget of $87.1 million vs $8.4 million for the Bison.
So how is it possible for a team like NDSU to outperform a much larger program like the Huskers?  Have the Bison had stability in their coaching staff?
Over the past 10 years NDSU and Nebraska have had three head coaches.  So no advantage for the Bison.
Money and facilities are very important factors, but the schools that have the best talent usually have a history of winning.  And winning programs usually attract better talent.
The Bison are always competing for championships.  Nebraska hasn’t won a conference championship since 1999 and last won a national crown in1997.
Ever since Matt Rhule came to Nebraska, he has been upgrading his football staff and raising the talent level.   So far, he’s had some success.  Scoring two consecutive winning seasons and appearing in two consecutive bowl games is a starter, but the level of football talent needs to make huge strides if Nebraska is to contend for titles.
If we go by national championships, the B1G has won the last three.  Michigan won it in ‘23, Ohio State in ‘24 and last year it was Indiana.
Advantage:  Big Ten.
But if we go by this year’s NFL draft picks, the SEC wallops the Big Ten 87-68.
Advantage: SEC.
But I’ll take the championships any day.
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Dan “Husker Dan” McGlynn has been writing about Husker football since 2003. His columns have appeared on HuskerMax.com as well as in several local newspapers and magazines. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Dan is a native Nebraskan and lives in Omaha. You may contact him at HuskerDan@cox.net.
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