As I suggested in an earlier diary, "The NFL Uncapped Year and Donovan Warren", the NFL draft in 2010 may set a record for the most juniors to leave early in a season.  I recently heard on the NFL network that more than 75 underclassmen may put their names in for draft consideration.

The reasons this coming draft is inspiring so many to try to grab the brass ring are all the result of the expiring labor agreement between NFL Players and owners.  First, it is likely that the next agreement will include a slotted rookie draft with lower starting salaries, like the NBA currently has, so some players may be entering during an uncapped year to maximize the pay in their first contract.  Second, the next contract may extend the period before players can become unrestricted free agents, so they would like to get in now to start their counter toward that time.  Finally, the number one reason college underclassmen are being advised to enter now is the potential lockout in 2011, players getting in now can ensure themselves a payday rather than risking a year without a season.

The prospects for a lockout are very real.  The NFL Players Association is desperately trying to get the owners to negotiate a new contract but the owners are unwilling to meet.  The owners are looking forward to the uncapped year, not so that they can spend like crazy, instead it provides them an opportunity to dump bad contracts without penalty while locking up their young stars.  While many current NFL players have been looking forward to the uncapped year as a windfall, the owners included language in the contract that adds an extra transition tag to protect a teams best players and extends the unrestricted free agency period from four years to six for this coming season; locking up many of the league's best young stars when they expected their freedom.

Since we all know that most of college football's top players are merely using the NCAA as a launching pad to the NFL, they don't need too much encouragement to take a shot at the league.  Here's a list of players that have already declared or indicated that they are strongly considering it (I included the Scout star ranking when they left high school or junior college):

Pos	Player	Team	Status	Rank
QB	Sam Bradford	Oklahoma	Declared	4 star
QB	Jevan Snead	Mississippi		4 star
QB	Ryan Mallett	Arkansas		5 star
QB	Jimmy Clausen	Notre Dame	Declared	5 star
QB	Case Keenum	Houston		2 star
RB	Jonathan Dwyer	Georgia Tech		4 star
RB	Evan Royster	Penn State	Declared	3 star
RB	John Clay	Wisconsin		4 star
RB	Brandon Saine	Ohio State		4 star
RB	Toby Gerhart	Stanford		3 star
RB	Jahvid Best	California	Declared	4 star
RB	DeMarco Murray	Oklahoma		5 star
RB	Harvey Unga	BYU		2 star
RB	Joe McKnight	Southern California		5 star
RB	Darren Evans	Virginia Tech		4 star
RB	Delone Carter	Syracuse		4 star
RB	Ryan Mathews	Fresno State	Declared	2 star
WR	Dez Bryant	Oklahoma State	Declared	4 star
WR	Arrelious Benn	Illinois	Declared	5 star
WR	Damian Williams	Southern California		4 star
WR	Dezmon Briscoe	Kansas	Declared	2 star
WR	Demaryius Thomas	Georgia Tech		3 star
WR	Golden Tate	Notre Dame	Declared	4 star
WR	Vincent Brown	San Diego State		3 star
WR	Chris Bell	Norfolk State		5 star
WR	Dane Sanzenbacher	Ohio State		4 star
WR	Mike Williams	Syracuse	Declared	2 star
TE	Rob Gronkowski	Arizona		4 star
TE	Aaron Hernandez	Florida		5 star
TE	Weslye Saunders	South Carolina		4 star
TE	Jermaine Gresham	Oklahoma	Declared	4 star
OT	Brian Bulaga	Iowa		4 star
OT	Anthony Davis	Rutgers	Declared	5 star
OT	Gabe Carimi	Wisconsin		3 star
OT	Jason Pinkston	Pittsburgh		4 star
OT	Bruce Campbell	Maryland	Declared	4 star
OL	Bryant Browning	Ohio State		3 star
OL	Justin Boren	Ohio State		5 star
OL	Maurkice Pouncey	Florida		4 star
OL	Mike Pouncey	Florida		4 star
DE	Carlos Dunlap	Florida		5 star
DE	Cliff Matthews	South Carolina		5 star
DE	Cameron Heyward	Ohio State		4 star
DE	Derrick Morgan	Georgia Tech		4 star
DE	Everson Griffen	Southern California	Declared	5 star
DE	Greg Romeus	Pittsburgh		2 star
DE	Jason Pierre-Paul	South Florida		5 star JC
DE	Thaddeus Gibson	Ohio State		4 star
DE	Adrian Clayborn	Iowa		4 star
DE	Justin Trattou	Florida		5 star
DE	Ryan Kerrigan	Purdue		3 star
DE	Kevin Basped	Nevada		2 star
DE	Dontay Moch	Nevada		2 star
DT	Gerald McCoy	Oklahoma	Declared	5 star
DT	Brian Price	UCLA	Declared	5 star
DT	Marvin Austin	North Carolina		5 star
DT	Allen Bailey	Miami (Fla.)		5 star
DT	Stephen Paea	Oregon State		3 star JC
DT	Abe Koroma	Western Illinois	Declared	3 star
ILB	Rolando McClain	Alabama		4 star
ILB	Scott Lutrus	UConn		2 star
ILB	Quan Sturdivant	North Carolina		4 star
ILB	Travis Lewis	Oklahoma		4 star
OLB	Greg Jones	Michigan State		3 star
OLB	Navorro Bowman	Penn State	Declared	4 star
OLB	Rennie Curran	Georgia		4 star
OLB	Bruce Carter	North Carolina		3 star
OLB	Von Miller	Texas A&M		4 star
CB	Joe Haden	Florida	Declared	4 star
CB	DeAndre Morgan	North Carolina State		3 star
CB	Ras-I Dowling	Virginia		2 star
CB	Donovan Warren	Michigan	Declared	5 star
CB	Kareem Jackson	Alabama		3 star
CB	Dominique Franks	Oklahoma		4 star
CB	Amari Spievey	Iowa		2 star
CB	Johnny Patrick	Louisville		3 star
CB	Chimdi Chekwa	Ohio State		2 star
CB	Jimmy Smith	Colorado		3 star
CB	Kendric Burney	North Carolina		3 star
CB	Devon Torrence	Ohio State		4 star
S	Eric Berry	Tennessee	Declared	5 star
S	Morgan Burnett	Georgia Tech		4 star
S	Reshad Jones	Georgia		4 star
S	Major Wright	Florida		5 star
S	Chad Jones	LSU		5 star
S	Deunta Williams	North Carolina		4 star
S	Jermale Hines	Ohio State		4 star

Source: www.Scout.com, www.NFLdraftbible.com

As you can see, of the 87 players on the list 21 have already made their intentions known.  The 2009 draft had 46 early entrants, but only nine had declared before January 1.

So how will this impact the Big Ten?

There are 20 Big Ten players on the list and four of those have already declared.  Nine of the players play for Ohio State.  It is unlikely that all of the players above will enter the draft, however it is likely many will.  If you combine this group with graduating seniors the power in the Big Ten could change dramatically.  Here is a list of  contributors that will be gone from each team in the Big Ten:

	Illinois	Indiana	Iowa	Michigan
QB	Juice Williams
RB	Daniel Dufrene*	Demetrius McCray*		Brandon Minor
RB		Bryan Payton*		Carlos Brown*
WR	Arrelious Benn**		Trey Stross	Greg Matthews
WR	Chris Duvalt			LaTerryal Savoy*
WR	Jarred Fayson
TE	Michael Hoomanawanui	Troy Wagner	Tony Moeaki
TE		Brian Zematis
OT		Rodger Saffold	Kyle Calloway	Mark Ortmann
OT			Bryan Bulaga**
OT
OT
OG	Jon Asamoah	Pete Saxon	Andy Kuempel*	David Moosman
OG		Mike Reiter*	Dace Richardson
OG			Dan Doering*
C	Eric Block		Rafael Eubanks
C
DE	Antonio James	Greg Middleton	Chad Geary*	Brandon Graham
DE	Doug Pilcher	Jammie Kirlew	Adrian Clayborn**	Adam Patterson*
DE
DT	Rahkeem Smith*		Travis Meade*
DT	Sirod Williams
DT
LB		Will Patterson	A.J. Edds
LB		Justin Carrington*	Pat Angerer
LB		Matt Mayberry
LB
CB	Dere Hicks		Amari Spievey**	Donovan Warren**
CB
CB
S	Donsay Hardeman	Austin Thomas		Steve Brown
S		Collin Taylor*
S		Nick Polk
S		Matt Kurz*
K				Jason Olesnavage
P	Anthony Santella			Zolton Mesko
Total	15	16	14	12
	Michigan State	Minnesota	Northwestern	Ohio State
QB			Mike Kafka
RB				Brandon Saine**
RB
WR	Blair White	Ben Kuznia*	Andrew Brewer	Ray Small*
WR			Kevin Frymire	Dane Sanzenbacher**
WR
TE		Nick Tow-Arnett		Jake Ballard
TE
OT	Rocco Cironi	Matt Stommes*	Kurt Mattes*	Jim Cordle
OT	Mike Schmeding*
OT
OT
OG	Brendon Moss		Desmond Taylor*	Bryant Browning**
OG				Justin Boren**
OG
C	Joel Nitchman			Andrew Moses*
C	John Stipek*
DE	Trevor Anderson	Cedric McKinley	Corey Wootton	Cameron Heyward**
DE	Colin Neely	Barrett Moen		Thaddeus Gibson**
DE		Derrick Onwuachi*		Lawrence Wilson*
DT	Michael Jordan*	Eric Small	Adam Hahn	Todd Denlinger
DT		Garrett Brown	Marshall Thomas*	Doug Worthington
DT				Rob Rose
LB	Brandon Denson	Simoni Lawrence		Austin Spitler
LB	Greg Jones**	Rex Sharpe*
LB	Adam Decker*	Nate Triplett
LB		Lee Campbell
CB	Jeremy Ware	Traye Simmons	Sherrick McManis	Chimdi Chekwa**
CB	Ross Weaver*	Marcus Sherels		Devon Torrence**
CB				Andre Amos*
S	K. Davis-Clark*		Brad Phillips	Kurt Coleman
S	Ashton Henderson*		Brendan Smith	Anderson Russell
S	Dan Fortener
S
K	Brett Swenson
P		Blake Haudan		Jon Thoma
Total	18	15	11	21
	Penn State	Purdue	Wisconsin
QB	Daryll Clark	Joey Elliott
RB	Evan Royster	Jaycen Taylor*	John Clay**
RB			Garrett Graham
WR	Brett Brackett	Royce Adams*
WR	Graham Zug	Aaron Valentin
WR	Patrick Mauti*
TE	Mickey Shuler		Mickey Turner
TE	Andrew Quarless*
OT	Dennis Landolt	Zach Jones
OT	DeOn'tae Pannell
OT	Ako Poti*
OT	Nerraw McCormack*
OG	Lou Eliades	Zach Reckman
OG
OG
C	Doug Klopacz*	Jared Zwilling
C
DE	Jerome Hayes	Keyon Brown*	O'Brien Schofield
DE	Tom Golarz*
DE
DT	Jared Odrick	Mike Neal	Daniel Moore
DT	Ollie Ogbu		Dan Cascone*
DT			Jeff Stehle
LB	Sean Lee	Jason Werner	Jaevery McFadden
LB	Navorro Bowman
LB	Josh Hull
LB	Bani Gbadyu*
CB	Knowledge Timmons	Brandon King
CB	A.J. Wallace*	David Pender
CB	S. McCullough*
S	Cedric Jeffries*	Torri Williams	Chris Maragos
S		Dwight Mclean
S
S
K	Collin Wagner
P	Jeremy Boone	Chris Summers
Total	27	15	9

* indicates non-starting contributor
** indicates early entrant
Source: www.rivals.com, www.foxsports.com, www.scout.com

Mgoblog readers can extrapolate the data anyway you choose, but a few things to note.  Only two teams lose fewer player than the 12 that Michigan loses; Northwestern loses 11 and Wisconsin only loses nine.  Penn State loses 27 contributors while Ohio State loses 21 and Michigan State loses 18.  These departures don't include any transfers, nor do they include any disciplinary departures (see Spartans). 

We all know that good teams reload and often players on the bench outshine the player they replace, but I am happy to see how few holes we will need to fill relative to the rest of the conference.

It will be an interesting off season.  The NFL has made it a little more interesting.  We will know how many players are truly leaving on January 15, the last day to declare for the draft.

Go Blue!