Men's NCAAs 2009

I will never accept that having foreign athletes in any sport not living in the US, not at the college training with the team and taking on-line courses to get eligible in time to show up for NCAA's allowed. It's not illegal but I think its wrong. I agree with this statement so much that I would even delete the modifier "foreign" and state that it should apply to ANY athlete. "…however I found it interesting that no mention of foreign swimmers on college teams was mentioned. If there truly is an organization being formed by the ASCA, CSCAA & USA Swimming to work on this effort can they truly avoid a discussion about the impact of allowing the limited (and declining) resources and opportunities to swim at the college level to be spent on training other countries athletes? Please don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having colleges recruit and train foreign athletes…to a point…I enjoyed the friendships and increased caliber of training/competition of that at while I was at UCSB. My point however is that if you and others believe that “The prospect of swimming in college is a major draw to keep high school swimmers in our sport and progressing” than what message are we sending these kids when they are on the bubble of being good enough to get a scholarship but see instead that it goes to a foreign athlete? Honestly I’m surprised no one has proposed a cap of “X” percentage of foreign swimmers/scholarships per team…or is it really win at any cost? Finally I’m also wondering what the thoughts of those who just watched the NCAA’s on TV/the Internet recently were seeing/hearing chants of “USA, USA” after the awards ceremony for the 400 free relay where Texas breaks the AR and takes 2nd? Public universities are funded mostly by three groups: taxpayers, tuition from matriculating students, and donations from alums. The institutional mission is education in its broadest sense. So tell me: -- what role does athletics, and swimming in particular, play in the institutional mission? -- how does the presence of foreign athletes compromise this mission in any way? The vast majority of the people paying the bills at universities are not competitive swimmers and have no interest in the sport. They certainly don't put their money down expecting that it will be spent to improve the US Olympic Team. I can make a better case that the presence of foreign students (athletes or otherwise) has a more positive impact on the education of the general student than substituting him for a homegrown jock with sub-par admission statistics. Athletic scholarships are not a God-given right. If a homegrown talent wants one, he can swim fast enough to earn one. If he loves the sport and wants to swim in college, he can do so without one. If USAS is depending on (ever-diminishing numbers of) athletic scholarships to improve the prospects of US Swimming on the international level...well, I think that's pretty poor strategic planning.

I will never accept that having foreign athletes in any sport not living in the US, not at the college training with the team and taking on-line courses to get eligible in time to show up for NCAA's allowed. It's not illegal but I think its wrong. I agree with this statement so much that I would even delete the modifier "foreign" and state that it should apply to ANY athlete. "…however I found it interesting that no mention of foreign swimmers on college teams was mentioned. If there truly is an organization being formed by the ASCA, CSCAA & USA Swimming to work on this effort can they truly avoid a discussion about the impact of allowing the limited (and declining) resources and opportunities to swim at the college level to be spent on training other countries athletes? Please don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having colleges recruit and train foreign athletes…to a point…I enjoyed the friendships and increased caliber of training/competition of that at while I was at UCSB. My point however is that if you and others believe that “The prospect of swimming in college is a major draw to keep high school swimmers in our sport and progressing” than what message are we sending these kids when they are on the bubble of being good enough to get a scholarship but see instead that it goes to a foreign athlete? Honestly I’m surprised no one has proposed a cap of “X” percentage of foreign swimmers/scholarships per team…or is it really win at any cost? Finally I’m also wondering what the thoughts of those who just watched the NCAA’s on TV/the Internet recently were seeing/hearing chants of “USA, USA” after the awards ceremony for the 400 free relay where Texas breaks the AR and takes 2nd? Public universities are funded mostly by three groups: taxpayers, tuition from matriculating students, and donations from alums. The institutional mission is education in its broadest sense. So tell me: -- what role does athletics, and swimming in particular, play in the institutional mission? -- how does the presence of foreign athletes compromise this mission in any way? The vast majority of the people paying the bills at universities are not competitive swimmers and have no interest in the sport. They certainly don't put their money down expecting that it will be spent to improve the US Olympic Team. I can make a better case that the presence of foreign students (athletes or otherwise) has a more positive impact on the education of the general student than substituting him for a homegrown jock with sub-par admission statistics. Athletic scholarships are not a God-given right. If a homegrown talent wants one, he can swim fast enough to earn one. If he loves the sport and wants to swim in college, he can do so without one. If USAS is depending on (ever-diminishing numbers of) athletic scholarships to improve the prospects of US Swimming on the international level...well, I think that's pretty poor strategic planning.