Purdue and the Super Bowl

An earlier graphic on CBS Sports today shed a lot of light on schools that send the most players to the Super Bowl. With 50 years worth of data now it is easy to pick out the top schools. Miami, USC, Michigan, Notre Dame, etc. have all sent a ton. A total of 393 different colleges have had at least one player appear in a Super Bowl. And look who is 30^th out of those 393:

Top 20 colleges with the most player appearances in the Super Bowl

Miami 117
USC 116
UCLA 108
Penn State 104
Michigan 104
Notre Dame 101
Tennessee 96
Nebraska 91
Colorado 90
Georgia 87
Ohio State 87
LSU 81
Florida State 80
Alabama 79
California 77
Florida 75
Oklahoma 75
Stanford 73
Arizona State 72
Michigan State 72

Remaining 373 colleges with player appearances in the Super Bowl

Texas A&M 71
North Carolina 68
Texas 67
Clemson 65
BYU 62
Oregon 61
Illinois 60
Pittsburgh 60
Boston College 59
Purdue 59

That's right, Purdue, they of the completely moribund football program. Even better, Kawann Short becomes the 59^th player to represent the Boilermakers on the NFL's biggest stage, and he makes it 17 straight year with at least one Purdue player in the game.

Here is how Purdue stands up to the rest of the Big Ten:

Penn State 104 (B1G since 1990, so not all players played in the Big Ten)
Michigan 104

Nebraska 91 (B1G since 2011, so not all players played in the Big Ten)

Ohio State 87

Michigan State 72

Illinois 60

Purdue 59

Minnesota 54

Iowa 50

Wisconsin 48

Maryland 43 (B1G since 2014, so not all players played in the Big Ten)

Rutgers 28 (B1G since 2014, so not all players played in the Big Ten)

Northwestern 26

Indiana 23

Want some more fun? Here are your Super Bowl MVPs from Purdue:

Super Bowl IV - Len Dawson

Super Bowl XLIV - Drew Brees

And finally, here are the guys that have the ring(s)

Mike Alstott - XXXVII

Cliff Avril - XLVIII

Drew Brees - XLIV

Dave Butz - XVII, XXII

Rosevelt Colvin - XXXVIII, XXXIX

Len Dawson - IV

Tim Foley - VII, VIII

Gilbert Gardner - XLI

Brandon Gorin - XXXVIII, XXXIX

Bob Griese - VII, VIII

Matt Light - XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX (Only Purdue player to play in at least 5 Super Bowls)

Gene Mruczkowski - XXXVIII, XXXIX

Mike Neal - XLV

Rob Ninkovich - XLIX

David Nugent - XXXVI

Chukky Okobi - XL

Bernard Pollard - XLVII

Jim Schwantz - XXX

John Standeford - XLI

Hank Stram - IV (Coach)

Keena Turner - XVI, XIX, XXIII, XXIV (Only Purdue player with 4 wins, one of just 38 players with 4 wins)

Rod Woodson - XXXV

Jeff Zgonina - XXXIV

Will Short be the 23rd player to get a ring?