HBCU NFL Pro Day Circuit Opens With Norfolk State Leading the Way

Norfolk State is hosting the first HBCU NFL Pro Day of the 2026 season today, launching a circuit that will carry the programs through the final weeks of evaluation before the NFL Draft kicks off April 23 in Pittsburgh.

The Spartans' March 10 session opens a stretch that includes Delaware State on March 12, Alabama State on March 23, and a cluster of historically Black programs on March 26 when Alcorn State, Grambling State, and Jackson State all hold their workouts on the same day. Tennessee State closes out the HBCU portion of the calendar on March 30. Sandwiched between those individual school sessions, Draftcountdown lists a standalone HBCU Combine on March 28, a single-day event that draws draft-eligible players from across the HBCU landscape to compete in front of scouts.

The broader 2026 Pro Day circuit began March 2 with Ball State and runs through April, serving as the last evaluation window before the draft. The format matters for players who chose not to perform physical drills at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. Pro Days allow prospects to work in controlled conditions on their own fields with their own coaches, and several top players this cycle made the deliberate choice to save their best measurables for these campus sessions.

The weight of that decision is most visible at the Indiana Pro Day on April 1, which is considered the most anticipated event on the calendar. Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza, the Indiana quarterback who threw 41 touchdowns in college and enters the draft as the leading candidate for the number one overall pick, skipped on-field drills at the Combine. His April 1 session could define the order of the entire draft, with teams still trying to confirm whether his accuracy and offensive reading translate to the professional level.

For HBCU programs, the stakes are more institutional. The six individual school Pro Days plus the March 28 HBCU Combine represent the primary window for NFL scouts to evaluate talent that does not always receive the recruiting exposure of Power Four programs. The schedule reflects a concentrated two-and-a-half-week push: from Norfolk State today through Tennessee State on March 30, HBCU programs will have hosted seven separate events by the time the broader circuit reaches its late-March peak, with Notre Dame, Ohio State, Alabama, and LSU all slotting their Pro Days into the same final week of March.