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College Football
High School All-American Bowl to begin featuring junior prospects alongside seniors
Published:
High school juniors will be able to participate in the All-American Bowl moving forward, the event announced on Monday.
Traditionally, the premier all-star game at the high school level has exclusively featured the top 100 high school seniors. With changes to the college football calendar in recent years pushing commitments, signings, and enrollments up, the bowl will begin allowing juniors to compete alongside seniors beginning in 2025.
“Given the changing landscape at the collegiate level, our senior participants are graduating high school earlier and enrolling in and attending college as early as December. As a result, the All-American Bowl is pivoting to now include top juniors for the upcoming 2025 All-American Bowl,” said Jon Miller, President, Acquisitions and Partnerships of NBC Sports. “This change will allow more top juniors to make their college declarations on network television.”
The 2025 All-American Bowl will be played on Saturday, January 11, 2025. It’ll be the 25th anniversary of the game.
Before the Early Signing Period, the All-American Bowl was the setting for high-profile commitments from some of the top prospects in a given class. But the early period in mid-December has become the de-facto main signing day for many programs who want to get their recruits locked up and, in many instances, enrolled early to participate in spring ball.
With the Playoff expanding this upcoming season, we could see an even higher percentage of early-enrollees than usual as teams look to get more and more squad depth for a longer and longer season.
“All six of the original quarterback invites were turned down, and that’s because those guys all joined their college programs and helped them participate in bowl practices,” 247Sports’ director of scouting Andrew Ivins said of the All-American Bowl’s rationale.
From a recruiting perspective, the permittance of juniors to play alongside seniors creates a massive opportunity for rising high school prospects to boost both their on-field stock and their off-field brands.
If the change has the desired effect — a more competitive event on the football field — it could also serve as an immensely valuable evaluation tool for programs when it comes to scouting. Getting a junior into an all-star kind of setting where they’ll face experienced peers can be a big benefit.
The All-American Bowl is regularly played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It is broadcast annually on NBC and Peacock. It is also the most-watched and highest-attended high school sporting event in the country, according to the news release from NBC Sports.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
