The times they are a changing for athletes with aspirations of entering the NFL. Too many talented young athletes are giving up on college way too early and going for the big bucks being offered for playing professional football. Some make it, and it is a dream come true. But many others don’t.
Recruiters get these guys all pumped up and the go to bed dreaming of dollar signs each evening instead of sugar plums. Friends and family tell them that they are the greatest and sooner or later they decide to forego a college education and declare for the NFL Draft.
But declaring for the draft and getting drafted are not always the same thing. What happens to all those guys who drop out of college, declare for the draft, then find themselves out in the cold with neither a college team to play for nor a high paying professional job?
College football coaches are also very much affected by these early withdrawals. They work on building up a strong contending team and suddenly one or more key players decide to up and go pro after their junior or even sophomore years in college. That leaves the coach to scramble around and find some suitable replacement for a player he thought would be his team leader but is now working at the car wash because no NFL team drafted him after he had declared.
Key figures in college athletics like Mike Slive of the SEC and others have been in dialogue for some time now with Roger Goodell and his staff at the NFL about finding a solution to this situation that can yield some sad results for both players and teams if things do not go as expected.
NFL.com has announced that there is now in place a new evaluation process with a three-tiered grading system. They are the first round, the second round and one called neither. If a player is judged to be in one of the first two rounds then he is pretty much assured that he will receive a call from some team on NFL Draft night.
If, however, a player is graded in the neither category, he will be advised to stay in school and finish his education, at least for another year. This way is seen as being better for the universities, their football teams and much better for the student athletes who then can take advantage of another year in college to further develop his football skills while continuing with their higher education.
