Upon the conclusion of the 2023 NFL Draft. COACH Deion Sanders was not happy. The hall of fame cornerback declared that he was “ashamed” of the 31 teams passed on taking a player from an HBCU. In fact, Jackson State’s Isaiah Bolden was the ONLY HBCU player selected in seven rounds (and three pretentious, overstuffed days) of drafting. And it did seem a little strange. After all, with the addition for HBCU coaches like Hue Jackson and Sanders (recently to bounce to the Colorado and the P5) bringing big time NFL credentials, HBCUs appeared to be experiencing a talent Renaissance.

Same too for the Group of Five, who only two years ago finally saw representation in the NCAA College Football playoffs. However, since Cincinnati clawed its way into college football’s velvet rope club, the Power Five has added three premium G5 programs (plus BYU), poached from its own weaker conferences (sorry Big 12 and PAC 12) and more or less set up the nation’s sportswriters to push Tulane as the next candidate for plucking. It was almost as if the Power Five felt the tingle of competition and responded with an emphatic “nope.”

Perhaps no visible evidence of this is more profound that the very same draft that steamed the creases out of Coach Deion Sanders forehead. In 2022, the NFL drafted 48 G5 talents into the pros. One year later, that total sunk to 34 – a 32% drop in picks.

Last year, the NFL drafted 15 Group of Five athletes (not counting players from Liberty and UConn) in the first three rounds, including two in the first round. In 2022, only five G5 athletes were drafted in the first three rounds – zero in the first. What is happening here?

The transfer portal is certainly happening. How many draft picks started their careers with a Group of Five program? I mean, I’m asking. I don’t know. But anecdotally, I counted a few! Perhaps somebody with more time will one day conduct this research.

As the Draft passed from Day One into Day Two, the unofficial theme seemed to be “select as many P5 players as possible, even if they have red flags.” If you played more than one down of defense for Georgia in 2022, you likely got drafted. Hell, 3-9 Stanford got five picks. In all, of the 259 picks the NFL made during the 2023 Draft, a whopping 206 (79.5%) hailed from P5 programs.

Every time the Group of Five makes a push for equality, the Power Five moves the goal posts to protect its interest. It’s good business, sure. But also, it sucks rocks.