Instead of the Big 12’s 14 schools hosting separate pro days for their football players next year, there will be only one conference-wide scouting event during the run-up to the 2024 NFL draft, the league announced Wednesday. The event will be held at the Dallas Cowboys’ training complex, nicknamed The Star, and closed to the public, though the league says the event will offer networking opportunities for football players with members of the Big 12 business advisory board in addition to a job fair and fan fest events.
The Big 12 seems likely to continue to be aggressive in finding ways to challenge the status quo. Whether or not you think co-branding with a streetwear brand or a new anthem surrounding the men’s basketball tournament is cringey, it is something, and it’s clear commissioner Brett Yormark and the league are going to continue to try to spice up and reimagine mundane events. Shaquille O’Neal performed as DJ Diesel during the men’s basketball tournament, for instance. Moves like this are sorely needed in a league that will undergo a major identity shift once its whales, Texas and Oklahoma, leave next summer.
Running what is essentially a mini version of the NFL combine is a novel idea for a conference and an interesting window into what could be the future of the tail end of the draft process. The current pro day landscape is fractured with each school hosting its own event. Conference-wide showcases could be something that smaller conferences in particular could look to do in the future.
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But the event will not be without its challenges. Roughly 175 athletes could work out next year if each school is able to send around 12 players, which is the approximate number that typically work out at a regular on-campus pro day. That’s around half of the total who attend the NFL combine (about 330 each year). Getting all of those players to efficiently test both medically and physically will be a logistical hurdle to get over. If the number is capped per school, how it’s viewed will vary. Some of the value from on-campus pro days lies in finding diamonds in the rough who scouts notice, then circle back with in addition to invaluable face time with coaches and school personnel to further dig in on potential character concerns. Local players who may not have played at a big school are also typically permitted to work out. But it also can help decrease waste for players who, frankly, don’t have a prayer of getting selected. How the league walks that line will be interesting to keep tabs on in the lead-up to it.
And don’t forget how the players (and their representation) view pro days, either. It’s not rare for players to skip the physical portion of the NFL combine in favor of their on-campus pro day. That allows them to work out in more familiar surroundings without the grind of a full day or interviews and medical testing before what’s often a late-night workout because the combine has morphed into a primetime TV event.
The Big 12 is not the only league involved here. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent is quoted in the event’s press release, signaling the NFL is being brought in as a partner to at least provide programming on NFL Network and its social media channels. And there will obviously be NFL personnel on-site next year for the event that may also end up serving as a de facto audition for Dallas potentially hosting the combine in the future.
The NFL combine has been in Indianapolis since 1987, and will be through at least next year. Indy’s run looked like it could be up in 2019, then again in ’22, but after a bidding process that included Dallas, it was kept there through ’24. There is no doubt that Indy’s history of hosting combined with its functionality—the convention center, Lucas Oil Stadium, main hotels, and institution restaurants are all connected by a system of gangways and tunnels to protect against the cold weather—has served it well. But the push and pull for the combine’s future will continue and if/when it will ever leave Indianapolis is often a hot topic of conversation during combine week.
It should be noted the league does not officially operate all aspects of the combine, which is under the purview of National Football Scouting Inc. (NFS), which is based in Indianapolis and co-owned by most of the league’s 32 teams. The NFL has worked with the nuts and bolts of a combine with the HBCU Legacy Bowl in New Orleans and its discontinued regional combine events.
For now, the Big 12’s innovation may end up being a blueprint for the future of the draft process in more ways than one.
