College Football: Evaluating where Super Bowl quarterbacks played in college
By Zach Bigalke
Top conferences represented by quarterbacks in the Super Bowl
No conference has been better represented in the Super Bowl than the west-coast conference known over time as the Pac-8, Pac-10, and Pac-12. What might be most interesting about that fact is that the conference’s most historically successful school on a national scale does not factor into that calculation.
USC has never seen one of its players reach a Super Bowl. Mark Sanchez came close with the New York Jets on several occasions. Others like Carson Palmer have shown promise and reached the playoffs regularly. But none have actually made it to the Promised Land of a title shot at the NFL level.
Instead, it has been players like California’s Joe Kapp, Craig Morton, Vince Ferragamo, and Aaron Rodgers helping lead the way. There too was UCLA’s Troy Aikman, the Stanford pair John Elway and Jim Plunkett, and both Washington schools thanks to Mark Rypien, Drew Bledsoe, and Chris Chandler.
Independents still top the charts despite the growth of conferences.
For the first half of the Super Bowl era to date, independent football programs have been a huge part of the quarterback production for the championship game. Notre Dame is a big part of that success rate, having generated seven of the 23 Super Bowl appearances by independents. But they are just the most prominent modern example of what used to be a widespread pool of unaffiliated programs.
Before schools like Penn State, Miami, and Florida State joined conferences in the 1990s, they were independent powerhouses. The last player to play college football for an independent and later reach a Super Bowl was Kerry Collins, formerly of Penn State and the New York Giants.
The last quarterback from an independent to win the Super Bowl was Brett Favre, who suited up for Southern Miss back when the Golden Eagles were still independent. As fewer and fewer independent programs remain viable in the 21st century, Farve may continue to be the last independent winner.
Full chart of conferences represented by quarterbacks in Super Bowl
| W | L | TOT | |
| Ind | 10 | 13 | 23 |
| PAC | 9 | 10 | 19 |
| Big Ten | 7 | 6 | 13 |
| SEC | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| ACC | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Gulf States | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| WAC | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Big 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| MAC | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| MVC | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| CAA | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| SWAC | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Big East | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| OVC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Southland | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Big West | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| CCIW | 0 | 1 | 1 |