Looks like the number of foreign athletes taking scholarship money away from home grown kids has surged in recent years. 2/3rds are in Division I schools.
I wouldn't dream of accusing lazy coaches who don't recruit well of using "hired guns" from other countries to win championships. I'm sure they are only accepting foreign athletes for the altruistic good of helping to diversify the student body..... :-)
Influx of foreigners presents new challenges for NCAA
www.usatoday.com/.../2008-10-01-foreign-influx_N.htm
Wait a minute. Is the job of the coach to try to cultivate talent within the state, or to try to put the best team together he can to try to win?
At lower levels, people should be trying to develop talent and make sure the kids have fun. But I'm pretty sure that in college, they want the team to win. If the football team at Auburn went 4-8 and the coach said, "Yeah, we didn't win, but look at all of the local talent I cultivated!" I'm pretty sure he'd still get fired. Is swimming all that different? Do you think they'd give the coach a pass on having a sucky team just because he gave lots of scholarships to Alabama kids to try to cultivate them?
Interesting to me that Auburn limits their team to 25 swimmers. They should follow the example of Arizona and have 34. Let the in-state guys walk on and take a stab at proving themselves. College swimming is not professional swimming by the way. We should hope that colleges consider the diamonds in the rough. Nobody said the entire team had to be made up of all in-state guys, but you have to admit that 1 is pretty pathetic.
Rest assured that if the Auburn football team had only 5% of its players from Alabama, the Trustees would be breathing down the coach's neck, whatever the record.
Wait a minute. Is the job of the coach to try to cultivate talent within the state, or to try to put the best team together he can to try to win?
At lower levels, people should be trying to develop talent and make sure the kids have fun. But I'm pretty sure that in college, they want the team to win. If the football team at Auburn went 4-8 and the coach said, "Yeah, we didn't win, but look at all of the local talent I cultivated!" I'm pretty sure he'd still get fired. Is swimming all that different? Do you think they'd give the coach a pass on having a sucky team just because he gave lots of scholarships to Alabama kids to try to cultivate them?
Interesting to me that Auburn limits their team to 25 swimmers. They should follow the example of Arizona and have 34. Let the in-state guys walk on and take a stab at proving themselves. College swimming is not professional swimming by the way. We should hope that colleges consider the diamonds in the rough. Nobody said the entire team had to be made up of all in-state guys, but you have to admit that 1 is pretty pathetic.
Rest assured that if the Auburn football team had only 5% of its players from Alabama, the Trustees would be breathing down the coach's neck, whatever the record.
