The NFL’s announcement Wednesday that it will allow non-graduate juniors to participate in all-star games beginning with the upcoming draft cycle was a literal game-changer for the Reese’s Senior Bowl.

For the first time since underclassmen began turning pro en masse in the early 1990s, Mobile’s all-star game will have access to the entire NFL draft class. In the past, the Senior Bowl could only invite players who had exhausted their eligibility (i.e., seniors) or those underclassmen who had graduated from college and had declared for the draft.

“It’s really exciting, in terms of ratcheting up the star power,” Nagy said. “It opens us up to some of the top players in the draft. And obviously we’re going to bring the best players we possibly can. The plan is to (invite) the best players, regardless of class.”

That means the likes of USC quarterback Caleb Williams, North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and Georgia tight end Brock Bowers could all conceivably play in the 2024 Senior Bowl, which takes place Feb. 3 at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the South Alabama campus. The East-West Shrine Bowl, which will be played Feb. 1 in Frisco, Texas, will also be allowed to invite underclassmen for the first time.

The Senior Bowl will also have access to some marquee in-state players expected to turn pro as juniors, including Alabama’s Dallas Turner, Kool-Aid McKinstry and JC Latham, as well as Auburn’s Jarquez Hunter. Those players in the past would not have had the option to spend Senior Bowl week showcasing their skills for pro scouts and talent-evaluators in game-like conditions, instead relying on the NFL combine and their school’s pro day to make their mark.

“There’s been a lot of big in-state guys over the years that we haven’t been able to get,” Nagy said. “So yeah, absolutely we’re excited about that.”

The first round of the NFL draft in recent years has been dominated by juniors, those players who turn pro at the first opportunity. The Senior Bowl has made its living off the mid-to-late rounds, where nearly every player drafted spent at least part of late January or early February in Mobile.

The new format has meant a change in workload for Nagy and his scouting staff, who normally would have spent this time of year making formal invitations to seniors and finalizing their rosters. The process will be more fluid and late-breaking with the rule change, as juniors have until mid-January to declare for the draft.

“Everyone knows, the bulk of the first three round are juniors,” Nagy said. “We’ve had as many as 45 of the top 102 (players drafted) in the Senior Bowl. And that was a great year for us. And then there were probably a handful of seniors that didn’t play in the game. But I’m guessing of the other 50, there were probably five guys that didn’t play in the Senior Bowl and other 50 were juniors.

“… We’re just gonna have to play the waiting game on some guys, and we’re just gonna have to try to get a good feel for where guys are at with coming out. So we made a lot of calls to schools within the last 24 hours too, just getting a feel for where they feel like their guys are at, doing the best job we can with the communication part of it.”

Of course, a question worth asking is, is it still the Senior Bowl if a large percentage of the roster is made up of juniors? Nagy said the game’s name isn’t changing, at least not yet.

“We’re just focused on getting the players here this year,” Nagy said. “That’s a way-down-the-road-conversation. We’re the Senior Bowl right now.

“If we’re being technical about it, we’ve had juniors for the last 10 years. We’ve had as many as 16, I think, in the last five years. We’ve averaged double-digits since we got here six years ago. So it’s new to some people, but it’s not new.”

As of late Thursday, only three players had publicly committed to the 2024 Senior Bowl: Tulane quarterback Michael Pratt and the Kansas State duo of offensive lineman Cooper Beebe and tight end Ben Sinnott. That number will continue to grow in the days and weeks leading up the game, as some schools refrain from giving out all-star game invitations to their players until after the end of the regular season.

One selling point of the Senior Bowl in recent years is that it has been a breeding ground for under-the-radar prospects who go on to become household names in the NFL, players such as Dak Prescott, Deebo Samuel, Bobby Wagner and Tariq Woolen. Quarterback Tyson Bagent of Division II Shepherd University was in the 2023 Senior Bowl and has started multiple games this season for the Chicago Bears.

Nagy said there will still be room for that type of player in the new-look Senior Bowl.

“That’s always been a special part of the Senior Bowl,” Nagy said. “We try to bring the best players and the guys the NFL wants to see, obviously. Someone asked me, would Tyson Bagent have been here last year under this format? And I think he still would have, because there were enough teams with draftable grades on Tyson that wanted to see him here. So I think we’ll still have that. That’s one of the great things about the Senior Bowl and I think it still will be.”

The Senior Bowl will update its roster via social media and on the official website, which also includes ticket information. The 2024 Senior Bowl marks the game’s 75th anniversary, and will be co-sponsored by the NFL Players Association.