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Nick Saban talks with Mike Mayock at Alabama football's Pro Day, Wednesday, March 12, 2014, at the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (Vasha Hunt/vhunt@al.com)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- If the NFL wants to stop the flood of juniors entering the NFL Draft, it should invite fewer players to the Combine, Alabama coach Nick Saban said Thursday.

In an interview on SiriusXM NFL radio, Saban, who saw 12 of his former players invited to this year's scouting extravaganza in Indianapolis, said it might entice fewer juniors to enter the draft if only those with a third-round or better grade were invited.

Saban said the enticement of improving one's draft stock at the Combine is one of the biggest reasons why on-the-fence players choose to leave a year of eligibility on the table.

"You're going to go to the Combine and shoot up the draft charts, which never really ever happens, either," Saban said. "More guys go down at the Combine than go up because they're not as fast and they don't have a very good feel in comparison to all the other competition in the draft at their position.

"When they come to that realization, it's too late."

The NFL invited 355 players to this year's Combine. In the 2013 NFL Draft, 254 players were selected.

A record 98 underclassmen declared for this year's draft, up from 73 in 2013. Four came from Alabama, as Cyrus Kouandjio, HaHa Clinton-Dix, Jeoffrey Pagan and Vinnie Sunseri entered their names into the fray. Though Adrian Hubbard had a year of eligibility remaining, he was not counted on the list because he graduated.

Only Kouandjio and Clinton-Dix were projected as first-round picks. Saban has said multiple times that he only fully endorses a player's decision if they're likely to be first-round picks.

"The way it's going right now, I don't think the NFL really wants all these guys coming out for the draft," Saban said. "They know they can develop better in college if they stay and play more unless they're going to be high draft picks. It's difficult for them to develop players with the way they practice now. If a player's not a high pick, it's a lot more difficult for them to develop as an NFL player.

"I just think systematically we need to do something."

Senior Bowl executive director Phil Savage, who aired concern about the flood of underclassmen in January, asked Saban what he thought about a "Junior combine," which would, in theory, be early enough to allow players to reconsider their decisions before the NFL's deadline.