For fantasy football players, Big Ten products won't stock your rosters

Tom Brady and Drew Brees are pretty good starting points for a conference's contributions to the NFL, and the Big Ten claims both.

But after that pair of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks from Michigan and Purdue, respectively, who are the skill-position greats from the Big Ten currently roaming the NFL.

Well, there's, uh ...

Precisely. What you need to know about how Big Ten football is different than, say, the SEC, can be summarized by looking at fantasy football cheat sheets.

USA TODAY Sports Weekly listed the average draft positions of 250 NFL players, via 1,753 mock drafts. The highest former Iowa Hawkeye is New York Jets running back Shonn Greene at 60th.

That shouldn't shame Iowa, because that made Greene the No. 5-ranked former Big Ten player (and No. 1 running back), ahead of anyone from Nebraska, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State. Brady is No. 5, Brees No. 9, former Illinois receiver Brandon Lloyd No. 44, and former Minnesota receiver Eric Decker No. 54.

Ohio State's highest-ranked player is Arizona Cardinals running back Beanie Wells, at 75th.

Of the top 100 (top 101, actually, because the San Francisco 49ers' defense is No. 93), here is the breakdown by conference:

SEC  24

ACC  18

Big 12  14  (counts receiver Jeremy Maclin of Missouri and running back Roy Helu of Nebraska, who played their college ball in the Big 12)

Pac-12  10

Conference USA  7

Big Ten  5

Big East 5

Mountain West  5

Mid-American  4

Coe College 1 (running back Fred Jackson of the Buffalo Bills, who at 24th is higher than any Big Ten running back by 36 spots)

Now, football also requires offensive linemen and defensive linemen. We know the Big Ten has supplied a lot of those to the NFL. We know Iowa has. We know Iowa has put a lot of players in The League, period.

But ... just five of the top 100 fantasy players -- the throwers, runners, receivers, game-breakers -- are from the Big Ten. That's kind of shocking, isn't it?

There are as many players in the top 100 from Coe, Mount Union, Northern Colorado, Bowie State and Hofstra in the top 100 as there are from any Big Ten program.

But this year the Big Ten has Denard Robinson and Montee Ball, who may be Nos. 2 and 3, or Nos. 3 and 2, behind USC quarterback Matt Barkley in preseason Heisman Trophy talk.

So there's that.