After the NFL draft a year ago, it felt like the Big 12 was in a dark place. The league hadn’t put a team in the College Football Playoff in the 2016 season. It had produced fewer draft picks than any league in the Power 5 by a wide margin, and those players had been drafted lower than their Power 5 counterparts by a wide margin. Even worse, the Big 12 had produced fewer draft picks than the American Athletic Conference, the league whose members the Big 12 had goaded into an expansion dog-and-pony show only to yank away the money-stuffed football—Lucy and Charlie Brown–style—at the last moment.
After Its NFL Draft Bounceback, the Big 12 Sees an Encouraging Path Forward
