Florida State Seminoles News

The NFL has tried to take a hard line on player conduct in recent years, but players continue to get into trouble with the law off the field.

We decided to take a look and see how heavily the ACC has contributed to the problem. USA Today has kept an online database of every player arrested in the last 15 years. 

There have been 713 arrests involving NFL players since 2000. Since former ACC players make up 13.5% of current NFL rosters, we’d expect 96 of the arrests to involve ACC products. 

As it turns out, the ACC is slightly above expectations. There have been 109 arrests involving ACC alumni.

Here’s a look at how that compares to other major conferences:

 Like the ACC, the Big Ten should have about 96 arrests, making that conference far above expectations for legal trouble. The SEC is right in line with expectations, since its proportion of players in the league should contribute to 120 arrests. 

Here’s the number of arrests by ACC school: 

Not only does Miami lead the league in arrests, but the Hurricanes are farthest above expectations, based on the number of players the U has sent ot the NFL: 

More Arrests Than Expected

Expected Number of Arrests

Fewer Arrests Than Expected

To be fair, arrested doesn’t mean guilty, and the database includes any players who were arrested, even if charges were later dropped or if the player was acquitted at trial. Just over one in four (28%) former ACC-player arrests ended up having their record cleared. Just looking at the remaining 72%, here are the ACC standings: 

Finally, here are the ACC products who show up in the arrest database most often: