Those percentages listed, average out to 15%, so yes that would be a great percentage to max out at international student athletes, if you want to mirror the general student population.
There are a couple D1 Colleges, where their men’s soccer roster approaches 100% international.
… NCAA Tennis entered the chat …
Re-entered. This international discussion is on a loop.
And a hearty congratulations for this thread celebrating its 1year anniversary this week :).
is it ground hog day?
Your thoughts on how those NCAA/HS stats may change with recent NCAA rule changes are well taken. Those rule changes will be an enormous benefit to the very small subset of elite players who will be heavily recruited to play at D1 schools. Both home-grown and international elite players will benefit. I am not a parent, but if I was, what would really concern me about water polo is the lack of D2 and D3 opportunities to continue playing in college in the overwhelmingly likely event that my kid does not turn out to be an elite level player. If we want the sport to grow, we need to think beyond opportunities for the best of the best. The NCAA seems to have decided they want D1 sports to function as professional leagues. We should not be surprised that for talent moves to chase the available opportunities, and I don’t see the NCAA setting limits on foreign players.
I don’t see the NCAA setting a limit on foreign players either. Back in the day they had a chance to set limits on right handed players but opted not to. Today there’s not a single roster that isn’t dominated by right handed players.
The NCAA will never set a limit on foreign players, since there is no benefit to them putting a limit. Nor will the coaches ask for limits, since foreign players gives them more chances to improve their team.
The US is the ‘land of opportunity for all” and that’s what makes the US great. Foreign students should have the opportunity to come and study here and also play D1 sports, however with all due respect, it has gotten out of hand in some sports, where foreign players take up more than 50 % of roster spots. Waterpolo is not even all that bad compared to other sports that I have seen at certain schools. (soccer, golf, tennis, hockey…) So now that same opportunity is being taken away from American kids, specially since coaches are allowed to bring in 20 yr old foreign players.
When the whole settlement happened with the NCAA in regards to NIL deals and they came down with the roster limits at each sport, I’m really surprised that a cap was not put in, again in all sports, on foreign players, maybe something like 25% let’s say.
If the 25% foreign players on the roster, happen to be the best on the team, then yes, by all means they should be starters. Law of the fittest., but when I read that a D1 soccer team was at 90% foreign players, that has to be corrected. Kinda like back in the day, when the whole Jamaican track team was training at US colleges and then would beat the US team in all international events.
This of course, is just my humble opinion, and yes I also am a foreigner
The only place I would differ you with is that there are some schools that have traditionally served recent immigrants and foreign students. A blast from the past example is St. Francis in NYC, which always had teams that were mostly made up of Europeans. Sadly, they no longer have a program and in fact I think discontinued varsity athletics altogether. I can’t think of another example in water polo. FWIW, a kid from Maine recently made local news here by being the first Maine resident to score a goal in a U Maine mens varsity game in more than a decade. Maine’s current mens varsity hockey roster has 12 Canadians, a Finn, a Swede, a Scot, and 12 Americans, one from in state.
Yup, hockey is very similar to waterpolo, and you can throw other sports in the same category, like soccer for example, where there is maybe a deeper pool of eligible kids in other countries than there is in the US, and if I was a NCAA coach, I would do the same thing. I would look for ways to improve my team within the rules that are allowed. If NCAA had a cap on foreign players, then I would work within those rules.
Canadian hockey players used to not be allowed to play in NCAA if they had played in the Canadian Junior leagues after HS, but now they can, so a seasoned 20yr kid can join NCAA hockey and still have 4 yrs of eligibility.
In Europe, some kids go from HS to lower division pro hockey leagues, just like soccer players do in South America and probably water polo players in Europe. What happens when NCAA coaches start reaching out to these kids, to leave their ‘pro’ leagues and come and join my D1 hockey team and get yourself a great education at Boston University. Is this fair? I don’t blame the coaches, or the colleges. They are all working under the same rules allowed to them.
NCAA as we knew it is over, and some sports are affected more then others.
U of Maine produced one of my all time favorite players. Paul Kariya, and yes he was Canadian 
Sorry, got away from water polo but a lot of these sports parallel with same fairness issues
The NCAA is a mafia organization that is there to perpetuate and profit from their existence rather than create an environment to maximize opportunities for boy and girl student athletes.
Major reforms are needed.
Oh, those days are already here. Check out the UMaine roster. Players are listed by their previous team. Almost none of them are high schools. Most are US and Canadian Junior Teams. Some are transfers from other colleges. 2025-26 Men’s Ice Hockey Roster - University of Maine Athletics
There is one thing that I can’t figure out however: As an international student you always have to pay (muuuucchhhh) higher tuition, how is that handled at the scholarship level? Also none of these athletes can partake on NIL deals either.
What would be the rationale for not letting international players get money out of NIL deals? If the NCAA D1 is going to be a professional league, why discriminate against players from away?
It isn’t the NCAA, it is the type of visa that most of them receive. Most international student-athletes attend on an F-1 visa, which limits their ability to work while in school.
I believe the fraction of international students on athletic scholarships is dramatically higher than domestic players. Like the former is near 100% and the latter is near 0% at top programs.
Wasn’t paying international players to coach club around SB a problem recently?
Most internationals pay nothing…
Americans carry burden every time.
For all the female athletes and parents of female athletes out there - whether college sports, high school or middle school. NCAA is a mess and needs to be fixed, but let’s not lose sight of the incredible virtues of athletics regardless of where or if you go to college.
**Approximately 90% to 96% **of top female C-suite executives and Fortune 500 female leaders played competitive sports, with many citing the experience as critical to developing leadership, resilience, and teamwork skills. Data indicates that 52% of these executives participated in sports at the collegiate or higher level.
Numerous articles supporting these stats.
How is this true?
Alumni Donations? I can’t imagine there is enough ticket or “tv” revenue to turn a profit.
