Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy shut down any speculation pretty quickly that his game might be changing its name.

Non-graduate underclassmen are allowed in the Senior Bowl and other all-star games for the first time this year at the NFL’s request, making the name of Mobile’s football showcase something of a misnomer. But Nagy said he’s not abandoning the Senior Bowl brand just because there are a dozen or so juniors in the 2024 game, which takes place Saturday at Hancock Whitney Stadium.

“Absolutely not — the Senior Bowl is the Senior Bowl,” Nagy said. “Everyone knows what it is. We don’t need to rename it.”

Though the name will remain the same, the influx of juniors has changed the makeup of the game to some degree. Though the Senior Bowl began allowing players with remaining eligibility who had already graduated from college (i.e., redshirt juniors) into its game more than a decade ago, it missed out on a significant number of draft prospects each year who were by definition not eligible for the game.

That changed in November, when the NFL announced it would allow third-year juniors to participate in all-star games. Suddenly, the entire draft class was open to the Senior Bowl and other games like it.

“We started having talks with the league office in August about it,” Nagy said. “So people asked, ‘did that catch you off-guard?’ It definitely didn’t catch us off-guard. Our scouts were watching juniors all fall. We were building the (Senior Bowl prospect) board with the juniors, so we kind of anticipated it.

“Now, the timing was a little weird in early November when they finally announced it, I think it caught some players off guard. I didn’t think they knew that they were going to be eligible to play in the Senior Bowl. But it didn’t change our process.”

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Many of the very top-of-the-draft-board juniors such as quarterbacks Caleb Williams of USC and Drake Maye of North Carolina, wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., and cornerback Kool-Aid McKinstry of Alabama are not in the Senior Bowl this year even though they are eligible. The Senior Bowl hasn’t had the draft’s eventual No. 1 pick since Baker Mayfield in 2018, but could have double-digit first-rounders in 2024 for the first time in several years.

Many of the potential first-round pick in this year’s Senior Bowl wouldn’t have been in years past, with Nagy calling the 2024 American and National team rosters the best in his six years running the game. Among the top juniors in this year’s Senior Bowl are Oregon center Jackson Powers-Johnson, Texas defensive lineman T’Vondre Sweat and safeties Kamren Kinchens of Miami and Javon Bullard of Georgia.

And though the Senior Bowl had upgraded on the “front end” of the talent pool, the institution of Name, Image and Likeness on the college level has downgraded the “back end” of the rosters. Third- and fourth-year college players who might have elected to turn pro — those who make up the later rounds of every year’s NFL draft — are now choosing to stay in school due to NIL money offsetting the desire to begin earning a pro pay check.

“There were over 140 (NFL draft early entries) in 2019, and now we’re down in the 50s,” Nagy said. “So where we’ve come in five years, that certainly shows where this thing is going with NIL. It wiped out Day 3 of the draft. … Rounds 5-7 on our board got wiped out in the month of December. … NIL is a great thing — an awesome thing — for the players, but does have an effect on the draft.”

Practices for the Reese’s Senior Bowl continue Wednesday and Thursday leading into Saturday’s 75th anniversary game at Hancock Whitney Stadium. Kickoff for the 2024 Senior Bowl is set for noon Saturday, with television coverage on NFL Network.