2014 NFL Draft: Official underclassmen declaration count hits 96
By Jack Crosby
Now more than ever, underclassmen in college football are deciding to bypass their final years on their school’s campus and test the waters of the National Football League as the final count for this year’s underclassmen declaring for the NFL Draft hit 96.
In case you missed it last night: Official NFL list of underclassmen hits 96. That's 23 more than last year.
— Matt Miller (@nfldraftscout) January 16, 2014
More and more, underclassmen do not want to follow in the footsteps of someone the likes of Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck and stay in school for their final year of eligibility.
The biggest names in this year’s draft such as Johnny Manziel, Jadeveon Clowney, Teddy Bridgewater and Blake Bortles are all young men that could have returned in 2014 to keep building their programs toward success, but instead decided to head off to the professional ranks.
Whether or not you see this as a disturbing trend or not is up to you. You can get a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people on this situation.
There’s definitely both a lot of positives and a lot of negatives that go along with some many of these players deciding to skip their final years in college.
What do you think of this growing trend? Feel free to sound off with your thoughts in the comments section below.