[ZSDOne]

One thing I always liked about football and basketball was that you didn't have to deal with the "prospect" BS that baseball does ... my favorite all-time example is Miguel Sano of the Twins.

I first pulled his cards in 2010 Bowman during the Stephen Strasburg chase, but they were considered prospect cards ... he didn't have an official "rookie card" until 2016 Topps, six years later, LOL

So it will be interesting what Beckett decides to do as far as players having NIL cards a couple years before NFL cards.

Meaning, take Bryce Young and CJ Stroud for example ... both were in 2022 Bowman U.

So does that mean their upcoming 2023 NFL cards are not going to be considered rookie cards?

The easy answer is that you can just call 2022 Bowman U a draft pick set to get around the designation, but who knows.

Stroud and Young already have Ohio State and Alabama uniform cards in the high end College sets Panini releases - Beckett traditionally hasn't listed things like Sage and Leaf as being Rookie Cards (which I think is wrong in and of itself but that's a different argument - if Sage and Leaf aren't rookie cards because they are released before the draft, Contenders Draft Picks and Prizm Draft Picks aren't either (well, at least back when they were actually released before the draft) but they have listed the Panini college cards as rookies.  I don't think the NFL has a specific definition of rookie cards either  - so as a practical matter, I don't see how you can say that 2023 Stroud and Young cards are really rookie cards - they have cards going back to at least 2021 and they have already had cards released in sets that are traditionally listed as "rookie cards.

But knowing the great new football collectors once "licensed" Young and Stroud autos come out, people are going to pay big bucks for them even though they could have saved a ton of money getting their first cards.  All because of the "rookie" label.