FRISCO, Texas -- The NFL's CAC -- Collegiate Advisory Committee -- has been around as a tool for college football underclassmen to solicit information about their potential NFL Draft prospects for more than 30 years, but that program appears on the verge of massive change.
During last week's National Football Operations Organization meetings at Dallas Cowboys headquarters, attendees learned -- or were reminded -- that the NFL is on the verge of ending that program, which has seen schools able to submit "five or six players" to a panel of NFL front office and personnel experts to learn their potential valuation for an upcoming draft.
For several years ongoing, players have been graded thusly: First round, Second round, Return to school.Now, as many believe that the so-called agents in the Name, Image and Likeness era of collegiate athletics and especially college football are wielding undue influence, the NFL is looking to move away from the program.
"Are you all in this room aware that the NFL is canceling the CAC program?," an expert panelist asked hundreds of college football operations directors. "Do you all know what the CAC evaluation program is?"[Since 1994], the NFL has had the Collegiate Advisory Committee. They get general managers in a room, scouts and personnel experts, and institutions can submit five or six names for evaluation [for the NFL Draft] based upon their film. They get first round, second round or go back to school [reports].
"What we have seen the lasts three to four years, schools have submitted and then kids used those evaluations to hold their schools hostage. So, they (the NFL) are cancelling the program because they don’t want to give a grade that says first or second round and then the kids or their agents use it against you all."
Moreover, experts shared, agents have been caught fabricating information they have claimed to receive from the NFL's CAC, which has worked closely with the NCAA during its existence.
"Agents are suppling false and or misleading information," he said, "They're saying I submitted my kid to the CAC and this was his grade. He didn't know I knew that the kid had not been evaluated by the CAC."
There are additional NFL Draft elements that also must be addressed moving forward. In perhaps a little-known element to the masses who follow and work in or around college football, a student-athlete must opt into the NFL Draft following his third season out of high school. That's widely known.
However, a student-athlete who has completed four years outside of high school -- perhaps he's a redshirt-junior -- must opt OUT of the NFL Draft in its current format.
"What if they forget to opt out? What if they don’t wanna opt out, are you gonna try to force them to?," a panelist asked. "If the (NCAA Transfer Portal) Window isn’t close to the Draft, it takes a piece off table.
"If he’s four years removed from high school and did not opt out [of the NFL Draft] technically he’s a free agent."
That scenario, the panelist explained, could see a kid who did not opt out and perhaps who attempted without success to renegotiate a more lucrative NIL deal then instead solicit free-agent opportunities from NFL teams. "That’s the basketball model [in college], to either opt in to the Draft or say you're staying. Pulling one thread is not just pulling one thread. It's impacting the rest of the sweater."
Both FootballScoop's Zach Barnett and John Brice were on hand in the Dallas Metroplex for the annual meetings, with Scoop's commitment and longevity to covering the meetings unmatched throughout the industry.
Barnett and Brice dive into all these topics and many more in this latest edition of the FootballScoop Podcast: