To be considered a football factory, a college program must serve as a perennial pipeline to the NFL. It doesn't, however, necessarily need to win many games in its own right.

A huge number of NFL starters hail from traditional powers like Alabama, Georgia and Southern California. But several schools have mysteriously, and steadily, produced a gaggle of pros despite struggling on the field themselves.

No school exemplifies this more than Illinois. There are 11 former Fighting Illini currently starting in the NFL, yet the school has averaged 4.1 wins a season for the past 10 years.

There are other programs with a lopsided ratio of win totals to alumni starting on Sundays. Ole Miss is typically an SEC doormat, but it has produced 10 starters, including Giants quarterback Eli Manning and 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis. And Virginia produced 10 current NFL starters, more than Notre Dame and Michigan.

Then, there are the underachievers. Louisville, Michigan State, Arkansas, Clemson and Texas Tech have each averaged more than seven wins for a decade, but each has five or fewer NFL starters. But the worst by this measure might be Minnesota. The Golden Gophers have managed 5.6 wins a year, but only have one NFL starter (Denver's Eric Decker). That is fewer than Division II's Grand Valley State and Shippensburg.

—Geoff Foster