Foreigh Athletes in the NCAA

For the love of god, do we really have to start the sniffling about this all over again? For the record, I don't care, will never care, couldn't care less. I have more important things to worry about, like who burned down our local Taco Bell.

I wouldn't dream of accusing lazy coaches who don't recruit well of using "hired guns" from other countries to win championships. Some would argue they are recruiting better by looking outside the borders of the U.S. for athletes. Anyone in college on an athletic scholarship is a hired gun.

Then does there exist a percentage or threshold of foreign competitors occupying NCAA scholarships that would ever be excessive? No, stop crying, move one. This is beat up and rode hard and put away wet for crying in the night.

If you'd like me to translate..... Hired guns are serious point scores at NCAAs. Ay caramba, can we just say you are right so you will stop your mantastic man crying? NO ONE CARES other than you. Now come to Charlotte and rebuild Taco Bell, be of some use to someone for goodness sakes.

Hired guns are serious point scores at NCAAs. I agree. That sounds like good recruiting to me. What's your point again?

The real issue for me is not foreign vs. American. It is 9.9 scholarships for men's Div 1 swimming. And 85 for football. That's a good way to get Mr. My America out of the woodwork.

Agreed.... that's what makes every last ounce of money more valuable and now even more difficult to obtain for US kids. There are billions of unclaimed scholarships dollars every year so stop pulling facts out of your FastSkin. No one is deprived. Seriously, can you please stop making up stats and crying about a non-issue? What is it gonna take for this to happen? I will buy you all the beer you want. I swam with 7 or 8 D-1 guys today and a D-II guy who swam against a current NCAA hotshot from a foreign country. You know what he said about him? - "he is awesome." Maybe when he's 57 like you he will cry rivers.

I've read about the billions, may or may not be true. The point is there is plenty of money out there for people to go to school, even poor pitiful passed over elite American swimmers. Well, maybe not so much now due to the economic situation.

Having been a USA coach in the past, I can see the concern. One thing that drives and motivates kids in high school to get up at 4:30 in the morning after having done a workout just 12 hours before is the idea that they may get a scholarship to swim in college. With the already small number of scholarships for swimming and the fact that some of them go to international students makes getting one to a top swimming school extremely difficult. I live in Alabama where the only two colleges in the state that offer a swim team (Div. I, II, or III) are Auburn and Alabama. I can't help but wonder sometimes if the reason why we have few boys in the sport here after 12 is because of the snowball's chance in hell of getting a swimming scholarship to a state school. On the other hand, knowing how tough it is for a swimmer to get a swimming scholarship keeps USA coaches on their toes to produce swimmers good enough to get one. All USA coaches need to re-examine their programs and ask why colleges are having to recruit swimmers from other countries. I also believe that there are more opportunities out there than folks realize. Coaches looking to help swimmers get scholarships need to do their homework and look around. As a coach, I was able to locate out-of-state schools that were willing to offer my swimmers scholarships. Also, Division III schools may not offer athletic scholarships, but many such schools will give a preference to swimmers in awarding academic scholarships.

So 6% of D-I athletes are foreign. Okay. Aside from the issue the article raised about athletes having come from pro backgrounds, I don't really see an issue. Certainly nothing that comes as a surprise anyhow.