College Football's Second-Longest NFL Draft Drought to End on Thursday

The 2026 NFL draft will take place from Thursday to Saturday adjacent to Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The NFL draft is a chance for proven college football powerhouses to add to their storied history of producing top NFL draft talent. Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and Oregon are all expected to add to multi-year streaks of producing first-round picks in 2026.

On the contrary, the NFL draft is a chance for less illustrious programs to emerge as producers of first-round talent. One program trying to prove it can produce first-round talent is Indiana, which has not pumped out a first-round pick since wide receiver Thomas Lewis in 1994.

The Hoosiers should instantly break their 32-year drought without a first-round pick with Fernando Mendoza as the probable No. 1 pick to the Las Vegas Raiders. Mendoza threw for 3,535 yards, 41 touchdowns and six interceptions during his Heisman Trophy campaign at Indiana.

Mendoza stands head and shoulders above what is considered a weak quarterback class. This weakness, coupled with the Raiders putting quarterback worries on the back burner in the years following Derek Carr's departure, virtually guarantees Mendoza's selection with the No. 1 overall pick.

While Indiana will have no issue breaking the drought, most of its departing NFL draft talent is expected to be taken in later rounds.

Wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. has been projected as a first-rounder in several mocks, although he has not received nearly as much praise as wide receivers such as Makai Lemon, Carnell Tate and Jordyn Tyson.

What other programs are in the midst of long first-round droughts?

Scenes from Georgia Tech's 2025 football game against Syracuse. — Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets defensive back Omar Daniels (9) breaks up a pass intended for Syracuse Orange tight end Dan Villari (89) | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

The longest first-round drought heading into the 2026 NFL draft belongs to SMU, whose last first-round pick was running back Reggie Dupard in 1986. The Mustangs were handed the "death penalty" by the NCAA in 1987, which brought about long-term damage to the program over the next two decades.

SMU and Indiana are the only programs with droughts spanning over 20 years, but there are plenty that have waited over a decade for a first-round selection. Kansas and Vanderbilt are both in the midst of 17-year droughts, but those two teams have combined for five winning seasons in that stretch.

Vanderbilt is coming off a 10-win season, but tight end Eli Stowers, the Commodores' best prospect, is a likely second-round selection.

Virginia has the fifth-longest wait at 16 years. Winning seasons have been few and far between in that stretch, although the Cavaliers are coming off a 2025 campaign in which they won 11 games and played in an ACC Championship.

Georgia Tech and Rutgers have both gone 15 years without a first-round pick. The Yellow Jackets' use of the triple option offense under Paul Johnson, coupled with their transition to a conventional offense after his departure, is part of the reason franchises have been deterred from drafting Georgia Tech prospects in early rounds.

Rutgers lost much of its value in conference expansion; the Scarlet Knights fell from a stable Big East program in the mid-2000s to a losing Big Ten program in the mid-2010s.

Nebraska (14 years), Syracuse (12 years) and Oklahoma State (11 years) are the last three programs with first-round droughts spanning over a decade.

All three have put together successful runs within the last 30 years, but they have all fallen into at least one dark stretch since 2010.

Syracuse has ended nine of its 13 seasons as an ACC member with a losing record, Nebraska is two years removed from a seven-year bowl hiatus, and Oklahoma State is a combined 4-20 in the last two seasons.

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