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National Football League
Draft King Analysis

January 7, 2010
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com

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The BCS Title game takes place tonight in Pasadena, California, as Alabama takes on Texas. As much as I like to belittle the BCS process (and as much of a shame that it is that there's not a playoff system in I-A/FBS), at least the present system allows for Alabama and Texas to face off, something that might not have been possible in past seasons. At the very least, there are first-round NFL prospects who will be playing on both sides of the ball in the game for both teams, both for this upcoming draft and also potentially for 2011 and likely 2012.

Rolando McClain
Rolando McClain is an elite LB prospect. (Icon SMI)

The non-playoff spots for the 2010 NFL Draft are in place, save for two coin flips that have to happen: one for the #10 spot between the Broncos and Jaguars and #16 for the 49ers and the Titans. As I referenced on the mock draft page on here itself, the NFL has changed its system from years past where now there won't be any non-playoff teams drafting ahead of playoff teams (save for trades). Moreover, teams that are knocked out of the playoffs in earlier rounds won't be drafting ahead of those who make it later into the post-season.

I made some mild tweaks to the Draft King mock today, in particular putting the lineup in order to reflect the first round order as well as I could. There are plenty of future first-round selections taking part in the BCS Title game tonight both for Alabama and Texas, and how they do tonight (good or bad) could impact the projections for the draft, particularly if there are any injuries involved.

Something to keep in mind for next month is that the NFL is heading into an uncapped season for 2010. There are a number of caveats involved with that, such as how players with five years of experience will be restricted free agency (and not unrestricted as they have been in years past). That, in no small part, I suspect lead to Cowboys OLB DeMarcus Ware signing a $40 million contract extension late last year. With five years as a pro, he would have been eligible for unrestricted free agency under the old system, but he would not have had that luxury this off-season.

The flip side to an uncapped season, however, is that it also will be a season without a minimum spending amount. Expect there to be all kinds of unanticipated ramifications involved here, everything from cuts being made to players who received big signing bonuses who in other years would have been kept around (lest the remaining pro-rated signing bonus, which accelerates for a cut player, causing cap problems) to owners pissing off their fans by going bare bones on the budget.

This afternoon my brother Matt sent me a link to this video on YouTube highlighting some of the most memorable moments from college football from 2000-2009. There were some great moments in the '00s, to be sure, and I imagine we'll see plenty more in the next ten years. That's part of what makes college football so great; there's always another crop of athletes ready to show what they can do.


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