NFL to Ban Academically Ineligible Players from Scouting Combine?

Feb 26, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; From left to right Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh sits with his brother and San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh while scouting during the NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

The NCAA already has plenty of sanctions in place to regualate collegiate players who are academically ineligible to play, but that apparently is not going to stop the NFL from stepping in and throwing down some law as well.

According to various reports the NFL is considering banning academically ineligible players from the NFL scouting combine. It’s a move that does not make a lot of sense, as Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk points out here:

"By excluding the players deemed most likely to be drafted from Indianapolis, the NFL would only be making the scouting process more cumbersome and expensive for its teams.  The primary benefit of the Scouting Combine comes from bringing all of the top prospects and all of the teams to the same place, reducing significantly the costs of the medical review and creating an opportunity to talk to as many players as possible, either via the normal interview rotation or the loosely-organized (and lesser-known) “train station” conversations, which in theory allows a sufficiently diligent team to register face time with every player."

Our take: It’s a weird move by the NFL, as it just makes this more difficult for individual teams. It’s a knee-jerk reaction to the recent events with Aaron Hernandez that may or may not prevent bad characters from making it in the NFL. The problem is there are plenty of kids with bad grades who are great people and good performers on the field.

What do you think?

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