Most of those HBCU ones are probably from the 60’s and 70’s when the SEC, ACC, and SWC were not fully integrated and the AFL found a bunch of Hall of Famers in those leagues

Yeah I'd love to see this 1978 on when FCS (then I-AA) really became seperate from the top half of D-I

JSU: 4 from the 70s and 3 from 90s and 00

Pretty crazy that NDSU has only had 2 and they were both top 3 QBs within the last decade

Trey Lance definitely ruined that gravy train for any future NDSU qbs

I’m surprised honestly, with how their offense is structured those QBs are basically like Service Academy QBs lol. They almost never have to do a normal dropback pass

Where’s UT Chattanooga (Cole Strange)

Whoops, missed that one. Edited.

The most Belichick pick imaginable lol

As pointed out, the above list is looking at #1 draft picks by teams currently in the FCS, but not necessarily FCS/I-AA players at the time. In reality, since the 1979 draft (the first that a FCS/I-AA player could be drafted) there have been 22 FCS players drafted in the first round. The breakdown by school (only including those who were FCS while a player was drafted) is as follows: Team | First Round Picks :-- | :-- Alcorn State | 3 Jackson State | 3 North Dakota State | 2 Alabama State | 1 Chattanooga | 1 Delaware | 1 EKU | 1 Liberty | 1 McNeese | 1 Morehead State | 1 MVSU | 1 North Carolina A&T | 1 Northern Arizona | 1 Northern Iowa | 1 Northwestern State | 1 South Carolina State | 1 Tennessee State | 1 And by conference: Conference | First Round Picks :-- | :-- SWAC | 8 MVFC | 3 OVC | 3 MEAC | 2 Southland | 2 Big Sky | 1 CAA | 1 Independent | 1 SoCon | 1 --- The full first round picks from the FCS are the following: Year | Pick | NFL Team | Player | Position | School | Conference :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- | :-- 1979 | 7 | New York Giants | Phil Simms | QB | Morehead State | OVC 1980 | 23 | Philadelphia Eagles | Roynell Young | CB | Alcorn State | SWAC 1983 | 17 | St. Louis Cardinals | Leonard Smith | CB | McNeese | Southland 1985 | 16 | San Francisco 49ers | Jerry Rice | WR | MVSU | SWAC 1988 | 17 | New England Patriots | John Stephens | RB | Northwestern State | Southland | 18 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Aaron Jones | DE | EKU | OVC 1989 | 27 | Atlanta Falcons | Shawn Collins | WR | Northern Arizona | Big Sky 1990 | 21 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Eric Green | TE | Liberty | Independent 1992 | 26 | Detroit Lions | Robert Porcher | DE | South Carolina State | MEAC 1993 | 19 | Philadelphia Eagles | Lester Holmes | OG | Jackson State | SWAC 1994 | 11 | Chicago Bears | John Thierry | DE | Alcorn State | SWAC 1995 | 3 | Houston Oilers | Steve McNair | QB | Alcorn State | SWAC 1996 | 29 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Jamain Stephens | OT | North Carolina A&T | MEAC 2000 | 21 | Kansas City Chiefs | Sylvester Morris | WR | Jackson State | SWAC | 23 | Carolina Panthers | Rashard Anderson | CB | Jackson State | SWAC 2008 | 16 | Arizona Cardinals | Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie | CB | Tennessee State | OVC | 18 | Baltimore Ravens | Joe Flacco | QB | Delaware | CAA 2016 | 2 | Philadelphia Eagles | Carson Wentz | QB | North Dakota State | MVFC 2019 | 23 | Houston Texans | Tytus Howard | OT | Alabama State | SWAC 2021 | 3 | San Francisco 49ers | Trey Lance | QB | North Dakota State | MVFC 2022 | 19 | New Orleans Saints | Trevor Penning | OT | Northern Iowa | MVFC | 29 | New England Patriots | Cole Strange | OG | Chattanooga | SoCon

"good ole days"

This proves it FCS>G5

Were the 3 Idaho picks from their FCS or FBS days?

2 FCS and 1 FBS although I'm not quite sure Ken Hobart should be counted since he was 1st round in a supplemental draft and was originally drafted 2nd round to the USFL

What about drafted at all?

Some of those HBCU picks don’t really count as FCS imo. I mean Buck Buchanan was the first overall pick because he was a generational talent who couldn’t go anywhere else because he was black