IndexOutofRangeException

I have been receiving a rather confusing Array Index out of bounds exception. The following code shows where I initialize the array. The problem I am having is with the "players" array.

 var tilePrefab: GameObject;
 var unitPrefab: GameObject;
 var enemyPrefab: GameObject;
 var mapSize: int = 4;
 static var playerTurn: boolean;
 static var turnCount: int = 0;
 private var map: GameObject[,];
 var players: GameObject[];
 var playerCount: int =4;
 

 function Start () {
     
     createMap();
     playerCount = 4;
     players = new GameObject[4];
        //players = new GameObject[playerCount];
     generatePlayers();
     Debug.Log("hi " + players[0]);
 }

When I try to access the array during the following function I get an the out of bounds exception. However, if I try to access the array in the start function it works fine. the Debug.Log i put in the start function for testing works just fine without giving me any errors

 function moveCurrentUnit(tile: Tile)
 {
     var dest: Vector3; 
     dest = tile.getLocation();
     //players[turnCount].GetComponent(Unit).destination = dest;
     Debug.Log("hi " + players[0]);
     players[0].GetComponent(Unit).destination = dest;
     
     if (turnCount < playerCount - 1)
     {
         turnCount++;
     }
     else if (turnCount >= playerCount - 1)
     {
         turnCount = 0;
     }
 }

additionally when I use another function to access the map array it works fine as well

 function createMap()
 {
     map = new GameObject[mapSize, mapSize];    
     for(var i = 0; i < mapSize; i++)
     {
         for(var j = 0; j < mapSize; j++)
         {
             map[i,j] = newTile(i,j);
         }
     }
 }

I have no idea what could be causing this problem. What is the difference between the way I try to access map array and the players array other than the fact that map is 2 dimensional? I even tried making the players array 2 dimensional to see if that made any difference. I'm pretty stumped any help would be appreciated