No Love For Wolfpack In Quarterback U Rankings

SI's rankings of the best college for producing NFL quarterbacks is flawed in several ways, not the least of which is that it ignores Russell Wilson's three seasons at NC State

There's nothing, with the possible exception of Carolina blue, that will get NC State fans riled up faster or more passionately than a member of the national media referring to Russell Wilson as a product of Wisconsin, even though he played the bulk of his career with the Wolfpack.

So sit down and take a deep breath, WPN, because you're not going to like what you're about to hear.

As part of a series in which attempts to determine "which college programs have the right to brand themselves the modern 'U,'" Sports Illustrated totally ignores Wilson's three seasons -- and the 8,545 yards and 76 touchdowns he accumulated -- in Raleigh.

In the process, it severely undervalues State in its Quarterback U rankings. 

SI ranks the Wolfpack seventh among college programs over the past 10 years -- behind Oklahoma, Florida State, Auburn, Louisville, Texas A&M, Southern Cal and tied with Baylor and Texas Tech.

Never mind that State had five quarterbacks on NFL rosters last season, Wilson, Philip Rivers, Jacoby Brissett, Ryan Finley and Mike Glennon. Or that four of them started at least one game, marking only the fifth time in NFL history that a school can make that claim.

Miami (1993), Michigan (2004), Southern Cal (2009) and Michigan State (2014) are the others.

Even with Wilson factored into State's ranking, the Wolfpack would still only place third behind Oklahoma (which does have a strong case with Sam Bradford, Kyler Murray and Baker Mayfield among its ranks) and Florida State.

In SI's expanded 20-year QB U rankings, State checks in at No. 9, trailing Southern Cal, California, Michigan, Louisville, Oklahoma, Oregon, Auburn and Florida State. With Wilson, the Wolfpack jumps up to No. 4.

Why such little love for State?

Proving that statistics can be skewed in such a way to prove any point you'd like to make, SI's rankings are based on a scoring system that awards points for draft position, number of NFL games started and individual awards won.

It's a system that gives first round such as Robert Griffin III and E.J. Manuel much greater value than Brissett and fellow third round pick Wilson. 

One that allows one single quarterback -- in this case, Auburn's Cam Newton -- to artifically inflate his schools stature while at the same time giving Rivers zero credit for his eight Pro Bowl selections, 59,271 career passing yards, 397 touchdowns and 224 straight starts without missing a game because he's never been an MVP or won a Super Bowl.

All this having been said, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, especially when it comes to subjective pursuits such as these QB rankings. At the same time, though, not all opinions should be taken seriously.

So take this one, like the ACC's recent "Best Players of the Last 50 Years" competition in which none of the four finalists actually played a game in the ACC, with a grain of salt.

Or better yet, the entire shaker.