ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Brian Bennett

Are you geeked about the NFL Draft this weekend? There's nothing more exciting than spending five hours in front of the TV for the, um, first round.

The draft, as usual, falls on the weekend when I celebrate my birthday, so I'll be checking the results occasionally instead of following every minute breathlessly. But for you serious draftniks out there, ESPN.com has a pretty cool tool that lets you track the history of the draft. You can filter it by NFL team, college, pro and college coach, high school and state.

It's a fun way to kill time, or in this instance, do a little analyzing.

I thought I'd take a look back on the past decade (since 1999) of the draft as it pertains to the Big East and see what came up. Here are some fun facts I discovered:

Most overall draft picks

Louisville: 25
Pitt: 22
Syracuse: 21
West Virginia: 18
Cincinnati: 13
South Florida: 10
Rutgers: 9
Connecticut: 5

Thoughts: Didn't expect Louisville to be so far ahead, but the Cardinals were churning out NFL players for several years there. That might not be the case in the next few years. No surprise that UConn is behind the field, given the Huskies' late start as an FBS program. But UConn might have the best draft day of any Big East team this weekend.

Most first-round picks

Syracuse: 4
Pitt: 3
West Virginia: 2
South Florida: 1
Louisville: 1

Thoughts: The clearest sign that the Orange's talent level fell off a cliff under Greg Robinson: 2008 was the first year since 1975 that Syracuse didn't have at least one player drafted. Rutgers and UConn could have their first first-rounders this year if Kenny Britt or Donald Brown make it that high.

Most players taken in first three rounds

Pitt: 10
Syracuse: 10
West Virginia: 9
Louisville: 8
Rutgers: 4
South Florida: 2
Cincinnati: 1
Connecticut: 1

Most players drafted, one year

6: Louisville, 2005, and Pittsburgh, 2004.

Thoughts: Here are the breakdowns of those two huge draft classes, in case you're wondering.

Louisville: Eric Shelton (second round), Stefan Lefors (fourth), Kerry Rhodes (fourth), Robert McCune (fifth), Lionel Gates (seventh) and J.R. Russell (seventh).

Pitt: Larry Fitzgerald (first round), Shawntae Spencer (second), Kris Wilson (second), Claude Harriott (fifth), Andy Lee (sixth), Brandon Miree (seventh).

Highest overall selections, by school

• Cincinnati: Antwan Peek, 3rd round, 2003

• Connecticut: Alfred Fincher, 3rd round, 2005

• Louisville: Amobi Okoye, 10th overall, 2007

• Pittsburgh: Larry Fitzgerald, 3rd overall, 2004

• Rutgers: Brian Leonard, 2nd round (pick 20), 2007

• South Florida: Mike Jenkins, 25th overall, 2008

• Syracuse: Donovan McNabb, 2nd overall, 1999

Just some fun tidbits to keep in mind this weekend.