When a school has a prized junior scooping up headlines and airtime talk and ink, then each coach and fan-base start the inevitable dreading in December that they could lose them to the NFL draft.

Most coaches do what they can to hang on to players that are projected to go lower than a sure first round pick, but most have no trouble with a consensus first round pick leaving early.

By the time a young man has gotten to his junior year of college, it usually represents a minimum of nine to ten years of work. That's a lot of dues that have been paid, and who can blame them for saying enough is enough.

So who was shown the love?

Penn State tailback Evan Royster showed JoePa the love as he bypassed this year's NFL draft to return.

Also the University of Washington's QB was projected as a sure first round choice, but Jake Locker has decided to return for his senior year as well.

Ohio State was really shown the love as Ross Homan, Chimdi Chekwa  and fellow junior Cameron Heyward all decided to return after much NFL interest. They cited that the desire to put Ohio State back on top and return an absolute killer defense was their main reason for staying.

North Carolina brings back a total of six junior starters and Arkansas also made news when Ryan Mallet decided to forgo the draft along with fellow junior, tight end D.J. Williams.

Sure there are lots of others, but each must fret what could happen. Look at the case of Sam Bradford who would have been a first round draft choice last year and now is heavily questioned after being injured his senior season.

As for the ones that were left, Florida led the list, and can only cause speculation over Urban Meyer's announcements.  Florida has a total of five players who left early including Carlos Dunlap and Joe Haden.

Georgia Tech also loses a few quality players such as 1000-plus rusher Jonathan Dwyer, defensive back Derrick Morgan and pass catcher Demaryus Thomas.

The USC Trojans had several that bailed out along with their coach Pete Carroll to the NFL. Running backs Joe McKnight and Stafon Johnson ran toward the cash along with defensive end Everson Griffen and top receiver Damien Williams.

Other schools with key hits were Georgia, Oklahoma and the University of South Florida.

The official list from the NFL of early departing seniors to be is: