The crowning of Clemson as national champion and the close of the 2016 season last week further strengthened the case the ACC was college football’s best conference. One of the reasons for its dominance over other Power 5 leagues was the lengthy list of talented players who had grown into stars over the course of their careers.
At the end of the season, nearly all of those stars elected to close out their college careers early after a strong 2016 and declare for the NFL draft, hitting the ACC hard.
It’s a positive sign that the ACC has 18 players who declared early for an opportunity to be drafted very high come spring, but the turnover is going to have a major impact on the league’s best teams in 2017.