What Happens At College All-Star Games?
The competition between the Senior Bowl and Shrine game has heated up and it has resulted in scoops and injury amidst a record year of opt-outs when the games are closer than ever.
Several years ago, I reported on the dueling politics between the two primary college all-star games on the college circuit, the Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama and the East-West Shrine Bowl in Frisco (or Denton), Texas. That competition has only ramped up in the following years.
The Shrine Bowl turned itself from being functionally a feeder to the Senior Bowl to one that is competing outright against its fellow showcase, an explicit goal of the Shrine Bowl since Eric Galko took over as the director of the game.
A necessary element of that competition has been a change in schedule, which makes it functionally impossible for a player to attend both events. Previously, the Shrine Bowl would run exactly a week prior to the Senior Bowl, meaning that the best performers from the Shrine game would go to the Senior Bowl.
That’s how we have alums from both programs, like Javon Hargrave, Logan Mankins, Graham Glasgow and Za’Darius Smith. The movement to weekend practices and a game aired midweek means that the Shrine game can no longer serve as a feeder – meaning the Shrine’s successes are theirs alone.
Nominally, the movement in schedule means a somewhat shorter timetable for scouts and media, though few see it in that light. There are also logistical reasons, like the initial movement of the Shrine game from St. Petersburg, Florida to Las Vegas, Nevada. When in Vegas, the Shrine Bowl could partner with the Pro Bowl to raise the profile of the game and the charity work that operates alongside the game.
The ambition that Galko has for the Shrine game was well understood a few years ago, though it’s become clearer every year. Jim Nagy, director of the Senior Bowl, has noticed, and hasn’t taken it well – he’s become more comfortable taking shots at the Shrine game in recent years. The night before the first practices began in Mobile, he tweeted out what everyone interpreted as a dig at the event and the talent level available in Denton, Texas, where this year’s Shrine practices were.
His missive was received extremely poorly among those in evaluation. Shrine staff, including Galko, directly tweeted out responses indicating their surprise at such a crass comment that seemingly insulted the prospects at the Shrine game.
Alums like Andrew Whitworth also expressed their displeasure at this knock on kids just coming out of college. More than one of those that criticized Nagy for this late-night shot received angry backchanneled messages from him telling them he was justified. It was truly bizarre.
It’s also not quite as accurate as Nagy would have observers believe. While it is the case that the Senior Bowl has sported a higher level of talent than the Shrine Bowl, every media analyst and NFL team personnel member that Wide Left talked to acknowledged that the gap was closing. This is the most comparable the talent levels have been in recent memory.
That doesn’t mean the talent levels are equal – Daniel Jeremiah’s most recent Top 50 includes two players that attended the Shrine Bowl, but neither of them practice. Eighteen players in Jeremiah’s Top 50 attended Senior Bowl and practiced.

Jeremiah’s rankings aren’t definitive, of course. In addition to Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Michigan defensive lineman Kenneth Grant, we often see East Carolina cornerback Shavon Revel drafted in first round mock drafts. Like Sanders and Grant, Revel attended but did not practice at the Shrine Bowl.
There’s a good chance we see a number of players drafted in the first 100 picks of the NFL draft emerging from the Shrine Bowl in record numbers – Ole Miss linebacker Chris Paul, LSU cornerback Zy Alexander, Maryland receiver Kaden Prather, Rutgers tackle Hollin Pierce, Miami kicker Andres Borregales, Maryland defensive lineman Jordan Phillips, Kansas cornerback Cobee Bryant, Iowa tight end Luke Lachey, UNLV receiver Ricky White and South Carolina running back Raheim Sanders are all good candidates for Day 2 selections.
Non-participation, like what we saw from Sanders, Grant and Revel, is a sticking point for the bowl games. The NFL released guidance in early November that players could not be invited to all-star games with the explicit understanding that they would only interview.
That makes one of the latest bon mots from Nagy curious – that the Senior Bowl doesn’t invite “interview-only” players. It’s not a unique policy that the Senior Bowl developed. They simply aren’t allowed to.
This occurs amidst a record-number of opt-outs for the Senior Bowl, with at least 27 players who opted out of the game prior to practices. Because the Senior Bowl can no longer use the Shrine game as a reserve of talent, this has resulted in an unprecedented skill gap between the top and bottom of the rosters.
Though the opt-outs are an interesting side story, the posturing over interview-only players is odd. The Senior Bowl proactively invited an injured, interview-only player as recently as last year, having invited Zak Zinter to the showcase despite his inability to participate. Zinter broke his leg in late November and would not recover in time to practice for an all-star game.
Revel, who tore his ACL in late September, would also not recover in time to participate in either game so could only be invited on an interview-only basis. If either bowl game offered the invite to Revel before the guidance was released, there is a good chance that the NFL would allow either bowl to honor invites sent before the new guidance was released..
Wide Left has learned, through multiple sources, that Revel was invited by the Senior Bowl as an interview-only attendee. This was not in violation of the NFL guidance, as it was offered before the rule was put in place. But it does contradict Nagy’s assertion that they have a policy against the practice. Revel’s team apparently preferred the Shrine Bowl offer. Instances of players preferring the Shrine game over the Senior Bowl have been increasing.
Shedeur Sanders, one of the top quarterbacks in the class, preferred the Shrine Bowl as well. There has been buzz that part of the reason the Sanders’ preferred the Shrine staff over the Senior staff but it’s also the case that Sanders’ receivers at Colorado were offered by Shrine and not Senior.
Sanders may seem like another example of a player invited as an “interview-only” player but Charles McDonald at Yahoo! Sports reported that Sanders genuinely planned on practicing at the Shrine Bowl until the day before practices began. It was then, according to McDonald, that the Titans, Browns and Giants asked Sanders to opt out of practices.
The Browns have denied this. Wide Left has learned from a source not directly affiliated with any of these three teams that at least one of the teams suggested, either explicitly or implicitly, to the Sanders team that it would be wise to opt out of practicing.
This informed his late decision to withdraw from practicing, according to the source.
Under Galko, the Shrine Bowl has consistently attempted to leverage these kinds of relationships without much success. But as their profile grows, so too does their ability to attract talent. This year that list doesn’t just include Sanders, but Cal cornerback Nohl Williams, who was advertised as an accepted invite by the Senior Bowl but who had never taken them up on their offer. Instead, Williams went to the Shrine game.
Strangely, Williams remains on the list of accepted invites from the Senior Bowl.
These interactions have impacted other players and may be a reason so many Syracuse players were at the Shrine game instead of the Senior Bowl. One notable exception, LeQuint Allen, has made some waves at the Senior Bowl.
When the dynamics between these two bowl games was originally reported, there was a suggestion that Galko and Nagy had been attempting to leverage their success in putting together these events into a more fully-fledged personnel job inside the league or somewhere similar. Two years later, that remains the case, according to multiple sources who spoke to Wide Left.
Wide Left has additionally learned that this ambition may be realized soon by one of the directors, perhaps even as early as this year. Though neither will be announced as an NFL general manager, other large football operations are strongly considering handing over the reins of their personnel department to a director.
When it was originally reported, some readers scoffed at the idea that a director of an all-star showcase could parlay their experience into a general manager position. But Nagy recently interviewed with the New York Jets for their job and remains on the radar of NFL and college personnel departments. So, too, with Galko, who ran the XFL’s personnel operation before he accepted the offer from the East-West Shrine Game to run their event.
All-star bowl games are run in a fashion similar to an NFL operation. Both have lead scouts, regional (or conference) scouts, ranked big boards and personnel meetings. The scouts have space carved out for them at college games adjacent to the scouts from NFL and CFL teams. Both bowl games have sent scouts into NFL and college personnel departments.
This speaks to another reason tensions can run so high between these two operations – both bowl games operate with budgets in the millions of dollars and the directors have ambitions beyond their current station. The stakes are high.
That might be why multiple agents have told Wide Left that they felt uncomfortable with how Nagy treated player injury situations, with at least two reporting that players in previous years were pressured into playing in the Senior Bowl game itself at the risk of aggravating an injury picked up during practice.
One relayed that the director of the Senior Bowl suggested that performance in the game itself would impact a player’s stock more than the NFL Combine would.
Do The Showcases Even Matter?
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