The Reese’s Senior Bowl is widely considered the pre-eminent post-season showcase for draft-eligible college football players. Held every year at the University of South Alabama, the players who get selected spend a week working with NFL coaches past and present. Scouts from all the NFL teams, and some in Canada, are there to get to a close-up view prior to the NFL Combine in March. This week, the Senior Bowl has 134 ACC players on the watch list to make the event after this season.
Who Leads the List?
The SEC leads the conferences with 229 players put on the watch list. The Big Ten has 161, the ACC has its 134, and the Big 12 has 118.
Ole Miss leads in terms of schools with the most selections with 21 players. In terms of ACC schools, Florida State has 16 players, the most in the conference. Miami has 13, Virginia Tech has 12, and Cal and Louisville have 11 each.
Senior Bowl representatives say the total number is much larger than in previous years. There are 859 players on the current watch list. The honor of being chosen for the game used to be for seniors only. Now it is open to draft-eligible players, which means including third-year players who could submit their names for the NFL Draft. The deadline to enter the draft comes before Senior Bowl week. That means any third-year player on the watch list who chooses not to enter the draft has their name taken off the list, but would likely be back on it next year.
The number is also inflated because there are still fifth and sixth-year players who extended their college careers with the Covid year exemptions.
The List Now and in the Future
Clearly, the list is too expansive to publish in this space, so the full list is here. Players can still be added as the season goes on. There were seven players who made the Senior Bowl week who were not on the initial watch list.
The Senior Bowl team starts sending its scouts out to campuses and to games next week to watch players in live action. They also have team members dedicated to watching film throughout the season. The number of players who make it in a given year has changed over time but generally exceeds 130. That fills two rosters for the game, including several “back-ups” for each team.
This season’s Senior Bowl in Mobile is Saturday, February 1st.
