NIL and transfer portal effect: More college players eschewing the NFL Draft

The NFL Draft Combine begins next week, the official start of a familiar process that concludes in late April with the actual selections.

There is one thing missing this year, however. Collegiate underclassmen — at least in the numbers we’ve seen in past drafts.

A player can petition the NFL for early entry — or “special eligibility” — once he is three years out of high school. This year just 54 athletes did so. Another four players who completed their undergraduate degrees ahead of schedule are also eligible.

The 58 total early entrants is the lowest since the 2011 draft, when 56 college juniors entered. It is markedly down from most of the last decade, when the list annually hit triple digits.

The number is just 43% of the record 135 who entered the 2019 draft early and just 50.4% of a seven-year stretch from 2016-2022 that saw an average of 115 players leave school early.

It is part of an emerging trend that saw the number cut to 82 for last year’s draft.

The reason?

The most obvious ones are the combination of college football coaches’ favorite punching bag complaints about how disastrous the game has become.

The transfer portal, which grants a player immediate NCAA eligibility when they switch schools.

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules that allow players, especially star ones, to be effectively paid to play college football.

Yeah, go figure.

There is no questioning that these two changes have created a different world in college football, and not all of it is perfect.

However, despite the wails of complaints from coaches, there have been noted positives for the sport as a whole and many teams in particular.

It turns out players aren’t rushing out the door of college football now that they can use the portal to react to coaching changes and seek better playing opportunities.

Others, meanwhile, are choosing…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nil-and-transfer-portal-effect-more-college-players-eschewing-the-nfl-draft-193626736.html

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Publish date : 2024-02-20 19:36:26

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