{"id":12606,"date":"2026-04-29T03:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/what-does-the-26-nfl-draft-mean-to-the-husker-football-program-sports-illustrated\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T03:18:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:18:53","slug":"what-does-the-26-nfl-draft-mean-to-the-husker-football-program-sports-illustrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/what-does-the-26-nfl-draft-mean-to-the-husker-football-program-sports-illustrated\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does the \u201826 NFL Draft Mean to the Husker Football Program? – Sports Illustrated"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this story:
One of the things we learned coming out of this year\u2019s NFL draft is that only one Husker (RB Emmett Johnson) was taken. One player.\u00a0 And as good as we think Johnson was in \u201825, he wasn\u2019t taken until the fifth round as the 161st overall pick.
One pick.\u00a0 But Nebraska did worse in \u201824 when the Huskers had zero picks.
Will the Big Red Rebuild of Memorial Stadium help attract better talent?\u00a0 Will NU have to up its NIL and rev-share spending?\u00a0 Possibly.\u00a0 Is money the most important factor?\u00a0 Not necessarily.
Which schools had the most draft picks this year?
The leader is Ohio State with 11.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some are Toledo, Navy, Wake Forest, North Carolina State and Northwestern.\u00a0 The kicker is that North Dakota State-an FCS program also had more NFL picks (2) than Nebraska.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Over the past ten years, Nebraska has had 16 players chosen in the NFL draft while the Bison have had seventeen.\u00a0 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?\u00a0 Have the Bison had stability in their coaching staff?
Over the past 10 years NDSU and Nebraska have had three head coaches.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And winning programs usually attract better talent.
The Bison are always competing for championships.\u00a0 Nebraska hasn\u2019t 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.\u00a0\u00a0 So far, he\u2019s had some success.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Michigan won it in \u201823, Ohio State in \u201824 and last year it was Indiana.
Advantage:\u00a0 Big Ten.
But if we go by this year\u2019s NFL draft picks, the SEC wallops the Big Ten 87-68.
Advantage: SEC.
But I\u2019ll take the championships any day.
Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking <\/strong><\/em>Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a>, subscribing to <\/strong><\/em>HuskerMax on YouTube<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a>, and visiting <\/strong><\/em>HuskerMax.com<\/strong><\/em><\/u><\/a> daily.<\/strong><\/em>
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Dan \u201cHusker Dan\u201d 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.
\u00a9 2026 <\/span> ABG-SI LLC<\/span> – <\/span>SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. – All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In this story:One of the things we learned coming out of this year\u2019s NFL draft is that only one Husker (RB Emmett Johnson) was taken. One player.\u00a0 And as good as we think Johnson was in \u201825, he wasn\u2019t taken until the fifth round as the 161st overall pick.One pick.\u00a0 But Nebraska did worse in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}