Who is the Modern RBU? Georgia Football comes in second

Sports illustrated's latest position group rankings in the series, Position U has the Georgia Bulldogs finishing in second place in the RBU rankings.

Which school can definitively stake its claim as college football’s official Running Back University? Using data from the past ten seasons and creating an achievement-based scoring system, Sports Illustrated’s Reid Foster has declared the Alabama Crimson Tide to be recent history’s RBU.

Nick Saban’s ten qualifying alumni were all drafted into the National Football League and receive additional points for all but one having broken into a starting lineup. Alabama is the only college program to have ten tailbacks drafted into the league in the past decade.

Rounding out the top three are Bama’s Southeastern Conference foes Georgia in second place and Louisiana State in third.

While both the Tigers and Tide both produced at least double the amount in this ten-year span, the scoring criteria heavily rewarded the Silver Britches for the performance of one player.

Todd Gurley’s top-ten draft position, 72 NFL starts, two All-Pro selections, 2015 Offensive Rookie of the Year award, and 2017 Offensive Player of the Year award made him the highest-scoring individual player on the list.

LSU has the highest number of players who qualify among the top three schools, receiving points for eight drafted Tigers and five undrafted free agents who later saw action in the NFL.

However, their top three performers have combined for 106 NFL starts and no individual awards compared to Georgia’s top three (including 2018 draftees Sony Michel and Nick Chubb) totaling 119 and four, respectively. Therefore, the Dawgs inched past the Bayou Bengals in Foster’s point system with only five representatives.

Foster’s full point totals for the top ten RBU’s are as follows:

1. Alabama (50 points)
2. Georgia (34 points, a great number when discussing Georgia running backs)
3. LSU (30 points)
4. Oklahoma (29 points)
5. Stanford (24 points)
6. Auburn (22 points)
7. Ohio State (21 points)
8. Miami (19 points, tie) /Wisconsin (19 points, tie)
9. Oregon (18 points)

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