Official Site of the Southeastern Conference

The 6-foot-6 junior comes off an impressive season and a superb Sugar Bowl that helped catapult him to the top spot. And with the Raiders coming off a 2-14 year in which they had the league's worst offense, he easily could be the starter on opening day.

Oakland will count on Russell to invigorate the Raiders, who scored only 168 points last season.

When Roger Goodell, conducting his first draft as commissioner, announced Russell's name, Raiders fans in the crowd cheered loudly. But there was a mixture of cheers and boos when Russell, who is bigger than some NFL linemen, came on stage to don a Raiders hat and hold up a No. 1 black jersey.

Then came chants of ``L-S-U, L-S-U'' for the man who soon will be in charge of the Silver and Black offense.

SEC Players in the 2007 NFL Draft
(List will be updated throughout the draft)

SEC 1st Round Notes (11)

• The SEC had 11 first round selections, which was the most of any conference. The Big Ten was second with seven, followed by the ACC with six and the Big 12 with four.
• The 11 first round draft picks were the most ever by the SEC. In 1998 and 2005, the SEC had 10 first round draft selections.
• JaMarcus Russell is the 15th SEC player to be selected as the first player in the NFL or AFL Draft (See below: Namath was first pick of AFL's Jets and Frederickson was first pick of NFL's Giants). Russell is the SEC's fourth first pick in the last 10 seasons.

SEC first picks
2007 - JaMarcus Russell, LSU - Raiders
2004 - Eli Manning, Ole Miss - Giants
1999 - Tim Couch, Kentucky - Browns
1998 - Peyton Manning, Tennessee - Colts
1988 - Aundray Bruce, Auburn - Falcons
1986 - Bo Jackson, Auburn - Buccaneers
1965 - Joe Namath, Alabama - Jets
Tucker Frederickson, Auburn - Giants
1960 - Billy Cannon, LSU - Rams
1953 - Harry Babcock, Georgia - 49ers
1952 - Billy Wade, Vanderbilt - Rams
1948 - Harry Gilmer, Alabama - Redskins
1945 - Charley Trippi, Georgia - Cardinals
1943 - Frank Sinkwich, Georgia - Lions
1940 - Charley Cafego, Tennessee - Cardinals

2nd Round Notes

• The SEC, Big Ten and Pac-10 were tied with the most selections in the second round with six each. The Big 12, WAC and Mountain West each had three selections.
• After two rounds, the SEC led with 17 selections, followed by the Big Ten with 13, Big 12 and the ACC with seven each.

3rd Round Notes

• The ACC led with seven selections in the third round followed by the Pac-10 and Big Ten with five each, while the SEC, MAC and WAC had four each.
• During the first day (three rounds of the NFL Draft), the SEC led with 21 selections, followed by the Big Ten with 18, ACC with 14, Big 12 with nine and the WAC with seven selections.

Day Two Notes

• The SEC led all conferences with 41 selections in the NFL Draft. The Big Ten was second with 34 followed by the ACC with 31 and the Big 12 with 28.
• Ten of the 12 SEC teams had at least one player selected in the NFL Draft. Florida led all SEC teams with nine players selected, followed by Tennessee with six, Auburn and LSU with five each, Arkansas and Georgia with four each, Alabama with three, Ole Miss and South Carolina with two each and Miss. State with one player selected. Kentucky and Vanderbilt did not have a player selected.