Men's NCAAs 2009

... They have one focus and that is to fill in gaps in their line up with talent ..., win ... and keep their job... Uhhh ... that's their job. I don't know about you, but I try to do everything legal within my means to be successful at my job, including -- yes, I'll admit it -- hiring people from other countries. When I go looking at MBA programs and graduate engineering schools to hire the best talent, I don't care where they came from.

Question to all you altruistic international lovers of the sport. Last year the the Lazer was banned because not all the schools had access to the suit. This year a new suit pops up with new technology in the manufacturing and not eveyone has access to it. Does this not hit an ethical chord with any of you? There are so many versions of tech suits now it is difficult to differentiate. It doesn't seem like teams wearing LZRs were at a disadvantage. What was the time advantage of the Italian suits? Were they not available for purchase by any school that worked hard enough and had enough money (just like the LZR)? You are talking about those hideous brown suits, right? Tim

Let's face it, coaches that take on top world class talent from abroad are NOT looking to build a broader cultural mecca on campus, they are NOT looking to benefit the sport of swimming world wide. They have one focus and that is to fill in gaps in their line up with talent they failed to recruit in the States, win at all cost and keep their job. :bitching: Wow. What more can be said. :confused:Wow.

Would Bousquet and Cielo be quite as good if they didn't come and train in the US? Why not focus on finding another Robin Leamy or Tom Jager instead? I will reask what Kirk said, are you suggesting that them getting better was a bad thing? If the Jager's of the (US Swim) world are going undiscovered it isn't because foreigners are taking 25% of the scholarships. That makes no sense.

I compare diving to noodling: The pool was built, in part, because a finance guy determined that they could make money off the pool by offering water aerobics classes and open swim. Pools are expensive. We need as many people in the water as possible. Even noodlers (Just quit staring at me because I can swim a lap without stopping). Similarly: I don't know how many programs would be dropped altogether if swimming and diving were separated, perhaps only a few, but the sports are better off coexisting.

There are lots of coaches who are just looking out for the sport as a whole and want swimmers to go faster no matter where they were born. If you think this is why these kids from other countries have been recruited you are naive. Lefty..... no I am not suggesting that these kids getting better is a bad thing. I am suggesting they benefited from the US program and funding. I would however, like them to attend classes the full year ON CAMPUS with the rest of the student swimmers and not show up half way through the year. If you look at the dual meet lineups from the Fall you may find a few names missing during that part of the season. OH BUT I FORGOT..... if the NCAA has a loop hole then its okay..... right? Let's face it, coaches that take on top world class talent from abroad are NOT looking to build a broader cultural mecca on campus, they are NOT looking to benefit the sport of swimming world wide. They have one focus and that is to fill in gaps in their line up with talent they failed to recruit in the States, win at all cost and keep their job. Question to all you altruistic international lovers of the sport. Last year the Lazer was banned because not all the schools had equal access to the suit. This year a new suit pops up with new technology in the manufacturing and not eveyone has access to it. Does this not hit an ethical chord with any of you?

our country is better than your country because we can produce more olympic swimming gold medals??????? seems like an argument that should be taking place in the school yard between (immature) third graders. It's a much better argument than "our country is better than your country because we have more and bigger bombs"

This just seems like sour grapes. The NCAA is never going to put a restriction on foreign athletes/students (especially dictated by a sport like swimming). Paul and Mr. Negative seem like patriotic idealists. Texas lost. It was close. Coach Reese needs to either do better at his patriotic recruiting approach or bend a little bit on foreign recruits, but the NCAA is not going to change. The NCAA is not even at the table with the coaching organizations and USA-S. Change the rules for online courses and similar tactics. Get USA-S to fund American swimming scholarships. Convince a few more coaches to recruit Americans. Support the existing Division I programs however you can. All those things seem like they can be accomplished and would help U.S. swimming. Tim

I don't recall the outrage from last year's Arizona win, using 8 foreigners, that has come this year or any year that Auburn wins the title. Seems less of a "pro-american" stance and more of "I hate Auburn's success at the NCAA's" stance. I support US swimming and want it to grow too. Doesn't mean that we have to throw hatered toward Auburn for their success. If bringing in foreigners is what it takes, there is nothing wrong with doing so. Like tpratt, I swam on the same college team with a bunch of foreign guys. They were more mature,more focused than the rest. They bring a positive influence to a team and help develop less mature, less focused athletes by their example. This thread is really about being jealous of one schools success because they choose to look outside the 50 states for good swimmers than it is about developing USA swimming. Your confusing me with another Smith...I hate Texas almost as much as USC...don't really care one way or another about Auburn because when I was in college we never swam them...I like U of A because I think that Frank has one of the finest coaching staffs in the country but was not happy to see him train the South African gold medalists in the 400 free relay. In other words you have no idea who I am, what I stand for or an understaning of my posted postions here.

Your confusing me with another Smith...I hate Texas almost as much as USC... I can vouch for Paul on this one ... he gives me crap about the Longhorns any chance he can get ...