The NFL Draft Advisory Board (sometimes initialized as the NFLDABChase Goodbread, ''Bama's Kareem Jackson puts draft decision on hold'', Tuscaloosa News - TideSports.com blog, January 6, 2010
/ref>) is a panel of professional football scouting experts who offer advisory opinions to

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

players as to the likely level of demand for the players' services during the

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

.Thomas Stinston, ''When in Doubt, Consult the Expert Panel'', Atlanta Journal Constitution, December 21, 2008
/ref>

Background

The board was created in 1994 to assist those college football players who were eligible to continue playing

NCAA football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

or enter the NFL draft. Although the NFL had begun permitting such "

underclassmen A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

" to apply for the draft in 1989, within a few years it was clear that commission-based

sports agent A sports agent is a legal representative (hence agent (law), agent) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and Testimonial, endorsement contracts for the principal (commercial law), at ...

s had deluded many of them as to their likely demand by teams and future salaries. 76 of the first 165 underclassmen to apply were not drafted, and once a college football player has entered the draft, he is no longer eligible to play college football. Thus, it was important that such players understand whether they would likely be among the small number of players drafted, and what their salaries might be, before committing to the process.

Board logistics

The board is composed of

general managers A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of t ...

and personnel directors from a number of NFL teams, along with the directors of the NFL's two

scouting combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Footb ...

s, BLESTO and The National. Before 2015 it issued an advisory opinion that a player has potential to be picked:Mark Edwards, ''Powers removes all doubt'', Decatur Daily, January 18, 2010
/ref>''Michigan's Warren skipping senior season for draft'', Associated Press (Sporting News), December 20, 2009
/ref>
/ref> *in the first round *as high as the second round *as high as the third round *after the third round *undrafted The board has a fair track record that has successfully predicted pick placement for some underclassmen but not others. From 2012 to 2014 it accurately predicted the selections of 73.7% of the players the board graded as first-round selections, and 85.4% of the players it graded for the second, but almost 53% of those receiving third-round grades or lower were not drafted. The number of underclassmen declaring for the draft rose from 56 in 2011 to 98 in 2014, setting a record each year. After 36 (37%) of those declaring in 2014 went undrafted, and eight schools had more than five underclassmen declaring, the board altered its procedure. it offers three opinions: *first round *second round *neither, which means that the board advises the player to stay in school Also, the number of players from a school seeking an opinion is limited to five, with some exceptions. The NFL reported that the number of underclassmen requesting evaluations for the 2015 draft declined by 42%, from 214 to 147, and the number declaring for the draft declined by 20.4%, to 76.

Player's role

167 underclassmen applied for an evaluation during the 2007-2008 season. Players typically submit their requests for a Board opinion by late December and, after receiving the panel's report, have until mid-January to decide whether to enter the draft.
/ref> They have 72 hours after the deadline to change their minds and decide to not enter. The Board's written opinion is delivered confidentially to the player. While some of the draft-eligible candidates choose to disclose the results to their coachesTommy Deas, ''All-American McClain leaves Tide for NFL'', Gadsen Times, January 11, 2010
/ref> or to the press, either fully
/ref> ttps://www.espn.com/nfl/draft10/news/story?id=4808573 ''Georgia Tech's Thomas to enter draft'', ESPN.com, January 8, 2010/ref> or partially,Heather Dinich, ''Worilds expects to be taken on first day'', ESPN.com, January 7, 2010
/ref> others do not.David Paschall, ''UGA’s Jones to NFL'', Chattanooga Times Free Press, January 6, 2010
/ref> For some players, the Board opinion determines whether they enter the draftScott Carter, ''USF defensive end Pierre-Paul going pro'', Tampa Tribune, January 7, 2010
/ref> while for others, little heed is paid to the opinion.Travis Haney, ''DE Geathers opts for early NFL route'', The Post and Courier, January 15, 2010
/ref> Some players are so sure of what the opinion will say that they do not even wait for it to arrive before deciding on their course,
/ref> while others listen to their coaches' advice on whether to declare early.

References

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