Syracuse Measures Up to the 'Big Boys' at Producing Pros

A new study shows that Syracuse University athletic programs are top-notch when it comes to sending players to the next level--and are even superior to other much larger schools with big-time sports reputations.

Syracuse basketball point guard Frank Howard (pictured above) hopes to add to that reputation with a big senior season in 2018-19 for the Orange. And although the famous Syracuse hoops team has excelled at developing players for the pros, another program on the hill has been even more successful at achieving that goal.

The folks at ESPN.com gathered data from the past 10 years and determined Syracuse University ranked 7th in the country in pro draft picks, many of them coming from the men's lacrosse program under coach John Desko.

In fact, Syracuse lax produced 34 Major League Lacrosse draft picks in the past decade, while the football program had 15 NFL picks, and the basketball team had 14 NBA picks. ESPN shows that Syracuse men's soccer has also been successful, with six first-round Major League Soccer picks in the past few years.

In the overall rankings, Syracuse placed ahead of such sports powerhouses as UCLA, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio State and LSU, most of which have two or three times the student enrollment of Syracuse.

The top three schools at producing pros were North Carolina, Maryland and Duke, which, notably has a smaller enrollment than Syracuse.