re: Record 92 Underclassman Declare for the Draft

Amazing amount of 4 and 5 star talent on that list. Probably 40% of the list is top graded talent.

I think the big difference is that with the new CBA, teams are less indebted to draft picks outside the top 15 picks which makes is a more even playing field to make the team if you are a 5-7 rounder or even UDFA.

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for just about all of these guys, that was true under the old CBA, too

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I think it's more than you think. If you were, say, a projected third round pick under the old CBA, you might want to stay in school and work to become a first round pick. Even if you didn't get there, it was worth the risk, because that's where the really big $$ were made. Now, that's not really true.

Troy Niklas was a pretty surprising early-entry for ND. He's projected at best the fourth TE, probably going 2nd-3rd round, if I had to guess. He could have played himself into the top TE and a mid-late first round pick next year. But why do it and give up a year's salary and have to wait an extra year for the second contract (where the big money is)? His dad had this quote to the ND rivals site:

"There are very few tight ends who have gone in the draft in the Top 10 and the Top 10 is where the money is. If you take the Top 10 out of the salary calculation, then going 21st in the draft isn't terribly different than going in the second round at No. 34. We crunched the numbers."

And he's talking about just TEs there, but the general rule still applies to all positions. If you're in the second round, it might make sense under the old way to stay an extra year and try to play your way into the first round, but there's much less discrepancy between the No. 25 pick and No. 45 pick today than there was five years ago.