Leaving college early to enter the NFL Draft has become a popular path for the nation’s best collegiate athletes, and the SEC’s top talents are no exception.

A majority of this year’s bowl season still lies ahead of us, but a number of SEC stars have already announced they’ll be entering next year’s draft, closing the book on their college careers following the 2014 season.

Only two players have officially filed paperwork with the NFL to enter the draft, according to NFL.com: Florida guard Tyler Moore and Auburn wideout Sammie Coates.

Moore spent his college career playing two different positions (guard and tackle) at two different programs (Nebraska and Florida). He struggled at tackle and looked much more capable as a guard, but CBS Sports didn’t rank Moore among its top 40 draft-eligibile guards nor its top 40 tackles.

Coates was one of the SEC’s most explosive playmakers in 2014, and although he was hampered all year by a knee injury suffered in a Week 1 win over Arkansas, he still managed to catch 30 passes for 717 yards and four touchdowns (his 23.9 yards per reception led the SEC this season).

CBS ranks Coates as its No. 7 wideout in the 2015 class, and slots him as a potential first- or second-round pick in the draft.

But although only Moore and Coates have made their declarations of turning pro official with the league, a number of other SEC superstars have made it well known that their upcoming bowl games will be their final games as collegiate athletes.

The least surprising of the bunch is Georgia tailback Todd Gurley. It was expected Gurley was going to turn pro after this year even before serving a four-game suspension and then ‘eter tearing his ACL. Following the suspension and the injury, his decision to turn pro became even more obvious.

Even though Gurley will spend most of his offseason recovering and might not be 100 percent by the start of his first NFL training camp, CBS still projects Gurley as its No. 2 tailback in the class and as a first- or second-round selection.

Another Gator will join Moore in this year’s draft class in defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., who announced he’ll be tuning pro early via a tweet following the news that former Florida coach Will Muschamp had been fired from his position with the Gators.

Fowler was one of the best defensive linemen in the nation in 2014 but was overshadowed by a deep class of pass-rushers in the SEC and an overwhelming amount of drama surrounding the UF program in 2014. CBS has listed him as an outside linebacker in this year’s class, where he’s rated the No.3 player at the position and the No. 14 overall talent in the class. He’s projected as a first round pick in the draft.

Last weekend LSU cornerback Jalen Collins announced he, too, will be leaving school early for the NFL. No other school in the SEC sent more underclassmen to the NFL the last two years than LSU, but so far Collins is the only Tiger to follow that path in 2014.

Collins was ninth in the SEC with 10 passes defended and fifth in the conference with nine pass breakups. CBS has not made a projection regarding his draft stock as of Monday morning, likely due to the recency of his declaration to turn pro.

A number of other SEC stars are either currently going through the process of learning where they might be slotted in the draft or considering whether turning pro a year early is the right move.

Many of those players won’t announce their intentions until after the draft, but stars like Alabama wideout Amari Cooper, Mississippi State linebacker Benardrick McKinney and quarterback Dak Prescott, Auburn wideout D’haquille Williams, Florida offensive tackle D.J. Humphries and more could also turn pro after the bowl season (Humphries was reportedly intending on going pro early but he refuted those reports last week).

Many SEC stars have also revealed they’ll return to school for the 2015 season, including four Georgia stars — Leonard Floyd, Jordan Jenkins, John Theus and Malcolm Mitchell — as well as a handful of others.

It will be another month before the SEC’s early entrants sort themselves out once and for all. Underclassmen have until Jan. 15 to declare for the draft, and there will be plenty of speculation between now and then as to who will go where and who could have a bright future in the NFL.

That process has already begun. Between the conference’s potential early entrants and a recruiting frenzy when the ongoing dead period comes to a close, there is far more than just bowl games to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.