Foreign athletes have been major factors on several NCAA
championship teams and account for some of the best performers in
collegiate sports.
They also account for much internal debate and controversy
within the NCAA.
“Certainly there are a few more things that we have to
clear up with the European players, because they’re not
playing in our own backyard,” UCLA men’s tennis coach
Billy Martin said. “Consequently, we are a lot stricter on
getting all of the information … because we don’t want to
bring a black eye to UCLA or our athletic department.”
Everyone from high-ranking NCAA officials to the lowliest
student manager has a different opinion about whether the the
number of foreign-born student-athletes on a given team should be
limited.
More and more schools are recruiting internationally, but, with
the exception of a few sports ““Â notably men’s
tennis ““ UCLA hasn’t had to actively recruit
international student-athletes.
“UCLA hasn’t had a lot of foreign athletes,
basically because we’ve done a good job recruiting Southern
California and America,” said UCLA Assistant Athletic
Director Mike Sondheimer, who oversees recruiting. “Generally
we don’t recruit foreign athletes as a primary means. We look
at them as a last resort.”
UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero has also echoed this
recruiting philosophy in the past.
Only 23 out of UCLA’s 530 athletes (4.3 percent) were born
in a country outside of the United States ““ five of those
from men’s tennis.
In comparison, fellow Pac-10 member USC, which has won almost as
many championships as UCLA, has 41 foreign athletes out of 516 (7.9
percent).
“There are more and more schools who are recruiting
worldwide right now,” Sondheimer said. “That’s
never going to be our style.”
The style may be hurting some UCLA teams though.
UCLA men’s and women’s water polo coach Adam
Krikorian has remained consistent with his American-based
recruiting philosophy.
“Long Beach State and USC have foreign players, but it all
comes down to each individual coach’s philosophy,”
Krikorian said. “I love to develop our own (American)
players, and give them the scholarships, and ultimately develop the
players for the national team.”
And his philosophy has worked, as both the UCLA men’s and
women’s teams are annual championship contenders, and the USA
water polo national teams are littered with UCLA players.
But rival USC had four foreign players in key roles to help them
win the 2003 NCAA Championship.
And while the UCLA women’s team won the national
championship in 2003, USC with its three foreign stars is currently
ranked No. 1 in the nation.
“When the national team does well, it increases the
sport’s attractiveness,” Krikorian said.
“Ultimately, it is great for expanding our sport’s
following.”
Another reason coaches sometimes choose not to recruit foreign
athletes is the potential hassle involved.
Becoming eligible to play NCAA sports can be problematic for
foreign athletes. The NCAA Division I Manual and the Guide to
International Academic Standards for Athletics Eligibility both
claim that U.S. and foreign athletes are kept to the same
standard.
Quantitatively, the NCAA is correct.
The NCAA requires 13 year-long courses of core subjects in high
school, with a 2.0 grade point average or its equivalent for both
American and international athletes, and requires both to earn a
sufficient test score in the SAT or the ACT, based on a sliding
scale with grades.
However, the list of courses is based off the U.S. educational
system, where every core subject is taught to every student. At
many European secondary schools, students specialize in one subject
and might not take the other ones, hurting their NCAA
eligibility.
The NCAA does outline acceptable degrees and grades from 148
different international educational systems. But there are no
exceptions to the rule about core classes.
Since the NCAA does not generally grant interviews to student
newspapers, the Daily Bruin could not get a comment from a
co-author of the Guide to International Academic Standards for
Athletics Eligibility, Kathy Yurk, who is listed as the contact for
foreign students on the NCAA web site.
Foreign student-athletes also have to send the NCAA Eligibility
Clearinghouse original copies of their transcripts, and
line-by-line translations with them if they are not in English
““ and both of them have to be verified by the proper
people.
With reports from Jeff Eisenberg, Raffi Martinian and David
Regan, Daily Bruin senior staff.