The Senior Bowl was once the ultimate showcase game for college seniors beginning down the path to an NFL career. After providing NFL teams with a full four-year body of work at the college level, the nation’s top seniors were given one opportunity to display their talents before scouts from throughout the league while competing against comparable competition.

But the culture of the NFL Draft process has changed dramatically through the years, especially in the last decade. More underclassmen are declaring for the draft than ever before, many of whom overshadow the nation’s top seniors. One could argue there’s almost a negative perception of seniors in a given draft class, the underlying question being If this player is so good, why didn’t he come out as an underclassmen?

It’s worth noting that this is not a hard and fast rule. Some players spend the first half of their college careers riding the bench, necessitating they return for their senior season to continue proving to pro scouts that they indeed have a future in the NFL.

Others are forced to return due to injuries. Some simply value their education and would rather risk a career-limiting injury at the expense of earning a degree they’ll use long after their athletic careers end.

Ultimately, not every senior in a draft class is the product of an inability to break into the league sooner.

But many do indeed fit that mold. A record 73 underclassmen declared for the 2013 draft, and that record was shattered when 98 underclassmen declared for the 2014 draft. This year, 75 underclassmen are draft-eligible, and many of those 75 players grade out as the top pro prospects in this draft.

The top two quarterbacks in this year’s class are underclassmen. So are four of the top five tailbacks, the No. 1 wideout, four of the top five defensive linemen, the No. 1 cornerback and the No. 1 safety. It’s not hard to find a correlation between these draft-eligible underclassmen and the top prospects in the draft class.

So let’s tie this back to where we began this discussion: at the Senior Bowl. In today’s age of the underclassmen, the Senior Bowl clearly does not have the same meaning to the NFL Draft process that it once did.

However, it still has meaning.

For many of the seniors involved in this year’s game, their performances during the week of practice and in the game itself could decide whether or not they’re drafted at all. For those with greater draft security it could decide whether or not these players are as talented as their underclassmen counterparts.

The underclassmen in the draft class don’t have an comparable showcase game to the Senior Bowl, which is one area where the seniors still have an edge in the draft process. Thus, if a senior can shine in the Senior Bowl, it could elevate them over a few underclassmen, earning them a better opportunity at the start of their pro career, not to mention a little extra cheddar with each paycheck.

The Senior Bowl is no longer about showing which players are the best — that’s simply impossible considering how many touted draft prospects are ineligible for the game. What the Senior Bowl is about nowadays is allowing the nation’s top seniors to show they belong.

At the end of the day, a showcase game is a showcase game, which is to say the game will always be about seniors showing draft scouts what they’re made of. But considering their top competition in the draft class doesn’t get to compete in the game, it’s the modern day Senior Bowl is more focused on a player’s worth than ever before.