College football underclassmen typically face a mid-January draft deadline on whether to declare for the NFL Draft. With teams playing in January bowl games, some now following New Year’s Day, some SEC coaches think the deadline needs to be pushed back. Arkansas coach Bret Bielema spoke about the issue at Monday’s SEC Media Days during his session at the podium, and namedropped one SEC ally he has on the issue.

“We had more discussions this past spring about what we can do to progressively make this a little better if they do declare themselves (eligible for the draft), and move back that declaration date,” Bielema said. “I know Nick [Saban] and several other coaches in our league have proposed moving that date back a little bit to allow our guys to have a better understanding.

“There are times now where we have a bowl game in January, and a kid feels pressure or is hearing from outside sources that he needs to make a decision sooner than later. Then he makes a decision before the bowl game even takes place. That tells me that A) he’s not focused on his priorities, and B) he’s getting information from people who really shouldn’t be gathering and giving information, and it leads to an uninformed decision.”

For Bielema, it’s a personal issue as he saw a former Razorbacks player go undrafted and lose out on a significant amount of money in his rookie contract despite having the talent to be an NFL starter in Year 2.

“I had a young man two years ago who left early for the draft, didn’t get drafted, and he has the ability to possibly start in the NFL in Year 2. For him to be an undrafted free agent, the money that he lost will never be regained,” Bielema said. “I knew he had the ability, but we were just all in a hurry. We’re in the microwave world where everyone wants things done in 20 seconds, but sometimes it needs to cook for two hours.”