NFL Combine 2012: Significant Changes Coming for Future NFL Combines?

The National Football League has arguably done a better job than any other sporting league at pinching every last cent out of every event they have on their yearly schedule.

The examples are overwhelming. 

The Super Bowl has transformed into the biggest sporting event in the world, the NFL draft has evolved into a three-day extravaganza and television contracts to broadcast every second of every NFL game have more zeroes at the end than you could wish to count.

I simply don't have the time to list all the other ways the NFL has turned its brand into a billion-dollar empire. 

So, with that being said, it makes sense that the NFL would want to turn the NFL Scouting Combine, which has continued to grow in popularity, into another money-grabbing opportunity. 

According to the New York Times' Judy Battista, that's exactly what the NFL has in the works for the future. 

Instead of players just running the 40-yard dash and bench-pressing 225 pounds on their own, the NFL wants to make the combine into a more entertaining viewing experience. As Battista puts it, "to enliven the combine," through competition.

Here's some of what Battista said the NFL is considering:

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To give that person something more exciting to watch than a three-cone drill — and to make the sometimes-stultifying combine the next must-see event on the football calendar for more people — the N.F.L. is contemplating making several significant changes in the next few years to its annual job fair for college players, including having prospects race against one another in the 40-yard dash and compete side by side to bench-press 225 pounds the most often.

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Battista points out that traditional NFL people will likely resist the changes. However, any opportunity for the NFL to make more money on an event is almost certain to happen.

The NFL is already letting 250 fans attend the combine on Sunday, which may just be a jumping-off point for the bigger changes the league plans to make.

Again, money is the motivator.

“When you make it interesting, people want to see it,” Eric Grubman, the executive vice president of NFL ventures and business operations told Battista. “When you let them in, it gets bigger. When it gets bigger, other people want to be there. It goes from football media, who are attracted to it because it’s such a pure event, to popular media, to sponsors because fans are watching."

The combine workouts are already broadcast by the NFL Network, and you'd have to think that the ratings from those workouts are showing the NFL that there is a money opportunity here that is going to waste.

In the past, the combine was a much more secretive event, with scouts and football people the only ones available to witness the happenings. Now, hundreds of media members cram the hallways, with millions more watching on television.

If the NFL can add even more intrigue to the event, more eyes (theoretically) are going to be watching on television. More eyes equals more money.

You could argue that adding competition to the combine would be beneficial from a scouting perspective, but it's also possible that changes could further devalue the combine for pure football people.

Either way, I'd expect the NFL to make these changes. The world's richest sports league will find ways to make more money, and the combine could be a gold mine.