To Draft or Not To Draft......

[NBT]

from GBN:

"September 24

(12:01 AM):To draft or not to draft ??? … With apologies to the Bard, that is one of the questions that will be facing the NFL this coming off-season if the current labor problems are not resolved. The official line at the NFL is that there will be a draft in 2011, however, as of today, no date, time or location has been set. Like other professional leagues other than baseball, the NFL is allowed to get around anti-trust legislation and draft players out of college because its part of the collective bargaining arrangement agreed to by the players. However, if as expected the CBA is allowed to lapse on March 1st , the owners lockout, and the Players’ Association decertifies itself, then the league would be open to anti-trust suits if it tried to proceed with a draft this spring or summer barring resolution of the current labor impasse. One option for the NFL would be to move the draft up and hold it before March 1st when the CBA expires. That, though, would be complicated by the fact that the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis isn't scheduled itself until the last week of February. The other related issue is how much the NFL’s labor woes will impact decisions of underclassmen thinking about turning pro this winter. In normal times, underclassmen have until January 15th to apply to the NFL for early entry to the upcoming draft. The question for underclassmen pondering entering the 2011 draft, though, will be whether they take the chance of leaving school this winter with the likelihood that there will be a lockout in the NFL next fall which would leave them in football limbo for who knows how long. And given the fact that underclassmen now make-up such an important component of the elite talent in every draft, the 2011 draft, if and whenever it is held, could be heavily impacted if an inordinate number of quality underclassmen simply decide the risk isn’t worth it and opt to stay in school through the 2011 season."