There has been a lot of discussion since Athens about foreign swimmers training in the United States. Most of them attend U.S. Universities, receive athletic scholarships, and compete at NCAA's. Some notable examples include Duje Draganja (Cal), Fred Bousquet and Kirsty Coventry (Auburn), Markus Rogan (Stanford), and the South African sprinters (Arizona). Some train in the U.S., but don't compete for a university (Inge de Bruijn). All of these athletes benefit from U.S. coaching, from training with U.S. swimmers, and in some cases, from financial support provided by U.S. entities (athletic scholarships). They all turn around and then win medals for other countries.
A couple questions: 1) What do you think about this arrangement generally? 2) Is it of benefit or detriment to U.S. swimming to have these foreign athletes training and competing here? 3) Should we be giving athletic scholarships, which are a scarce resource in swimming, to foreign athletes who will represent their own countries internationally instead of U.S.-born swimmers who will represent us internationally?
I'm sure there are other issues, but these come directly to mind.
Parents
Former Member
I express profound disinterest and ennui with the issue of scholarships for swimmers who are not U.S. citizens.
However, what's all this about SEC schools dropping the tuition they charge varsity athletes to the in-state rate at the start of their sophmore year? Can this be true, and if so, why aren't the other programs yelling bloody murder about it? Most teams have a limited number of scholarships, and to make them stretch farther they sometimes give twice as many athletes half scholarships in stead of full rides. Do the SEC schools drop their tuition for all their students to the in-state rate when they become sophmores on the argument that now they have spent a year establishing in state residency? Didn't think so. That being the case, how could this not be viewed as a 50%, 60% or whatever the difference is, scholarship? Is that NCAA street legal?
Rant du jour: Div I athletics are a sham. They can be and are often great semi-pro athletic competition. However, near as I can tell, they are disproportionately expensive, largely because the athletic dept has shouldered the burden for paying for the "education" of it athletes. Consequently, they are unstable institutions, subject to the football team needing an new second assistant bottle-washer who has to be paid a six-figure salary. Moreover, the athletes for whom the tuition bills are being paid can't take full advantage of the educational opportunity because of the demands the program makes on their time. Oh BTW, I've heard from more than one scholarship athlete that they viewed their NCAA career as a "job" rather than an joy because of said demands.
Ladies & Gentlemen, this is bull-crap! Give me Div III athletics any day of the week, where programs are less likely to be sacrificed for monetary reasons, and everyone on the team is clear as to the primary reason they are in school. (Or, if they are not clear, it is because they are idiots, rather than being beholden to "the program's" athletic aspirations.)
I express profound disinterest and ennui with the issue of scholarships for swimmers who are not U.S. citizens.
However, what's all this about SEC schools dropping the tuition they charge varsity athletes to the in-state rate at the start of their sophmore year? Can this be true, and if so, why aren't the other programs yelling bloody murder about it? Most teams have a limited number of scholarships, and to make them stretch farther they sometimes give twice as many athletes half scholarships in stead of full rides. Do the SEC schools drop their tuition for all their students to the in-state rate when they become sophmores on the argument that now they have spent a year establishing in state residency? Didn't think so. That being the case, how could this not be viewed as a 50%, 60% or whatever the difference is, scholarship? Is that NCAA street legal?
Rant du jour: Div I athletics are a sham. They can be and are often great semi-pro athletic competition. However, near as I can tell, they are disproportionately expensive, largely because the athletic dept has shouldered the burden for paying for the "education" of it athletes. Consequently, they are unstable institutions, subject to the football team needing an new second assistant bottle-washer who has to be paid a six-figure salary. Moreover, the athletes for whom the tuition bills are being paid can't take full advantage of the educational opportunity because of the demands the program makes on their time. Oh BTW, I've heard from more than one scholarship athlete that they viewed their NCAA career as a "job" rather than an joy because of said demands.
Ladies & Gentlemen, this is bull-crap! Give me Div III athletics any day of the week, where programs are less likely to be sacrificed for monetary reasons, and everyone on the team is clear as to the primary reason they are in school. (Or, if they are not clear, it is because they are idiots, rather than being beholden to "the program's" athletic aspirations.)
