Note: Not just Big 4. Look at SJSU, Fordham, and some others results over time.
The situation at Stanford will likely change back to 1 to 2 foreign players on the roster instead of 4 when academic standards (i.e., SAT) will be reinstated for the class of 2026. At Harvard and Brown (first wave of reinstating test scores) the bar is around 1450+ nowadays. I doubt many foreign players can clear this bar. Take Brown and also Stanford. 2019 only 1 foreign versus 5 in 2024. This will reverse. Not sure about the other CA schools.
Instead of spliting a shrinking pie there has to be a way to introduce WP, biggest problem on the men’s side, to other large public schools across the country. Florida, TX, Michigan and Indiana for starters.
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Five of USC’s returning players are goalies. Obviously, Herzer will be the starter. How many goalies do they need to carry? I would think that they can easily get by with three, which could give them an additonal two open roster spots.
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Yeah, it’s hard to imagine anyone carrying more than 4 goalies.
Agreed on the state school aspect. The women also get SDSU, ASU, Fresno State, Michigan and Indiana to add to UCLA, CAL and SJSU
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Cool and shows the trend. I quickly looked at Cal’s 7 foreigners. I might be wrong but other than Itay Batito they are all roughly the same age as their class would suggest and not older than domestic players.
Below is a table showing the ranking of our U18 team in worlds going back 16 years. We are about 9th place. It might be that our system is not producing the same level of players at college age. We might need to put tariffs on importing foreign players 
Going back to the point Wes made, a 16/17 top European player already trains and plays with the senior team of their clubs. We don’t have that development opportunity. And we might need to create it with NL teams practicing against some of the local U18 teams . NYAC does some of that in the East Coast. Or allowing NCAA teams to play U18 club teams .
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Do you know if these spring 2026 commits have at least been guaranteed acceptance to USC? if not, it sounds more like they got nothing.
You are forgetting that they can just cut 2 currently rostered kids. I am hearing this is happening quite a bit. They will bring in the new class, probably cut a goalie or two. Some teams do not have the luxury of losing 9 seniors and are cutting 4-5 kids to make room new internationals, fifth years, transfers and the new class.
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Sounds like water polo Squid Game
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How quickly “Student” got eroded from Student-Athlete.
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I found this report conducted by NCAA in 2019 , about international athletes across various D1 sports. Their main point of comparison is 2018 versus 2013, short and a bit dated but still interesting and illustrates the the large surge also depicted in your big-4 chart bertween 2013-2018.
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Here are similar data, updated to 2023.
Tennis? What is going on there? Is there any concern from US students or parents in that sport?
The NCAA data seems strange with 2017 % at 28% higher than their previous number for 2018 at 20%. Still corraborates the trend @marco shows for the top programs and indicates higher % at the lower ranked program to increase the avg. to 34% from around 18% in the big-4. I wonder whether NCAA consideres anyone outside of CA as ‘foreign’…
Actually plenty. Anecdotally, I have heard from several parents of elite tennis players who have had a difficult time finding spots for their players. One nationally ranked 6’4"+ “3-star” recruit was able to find a spot at a D1 program in Southern California (I prefer not to name the school to avoid outing the student), but the roster is 100% foreign. UCLA has 4 internationals on its 11-person men’s tennis roster.
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I have to disagree with your point here that international students won’t be able to clear the SAT bar. Most international students come from places where high school education is way, and I mean WAY, better than here in the US.
Most international players I’ve come across will tell you that the college education they receive here is on par with their high school education. Hitting 1450 on an SAT is really not that hard. The hardest portion there is actually the English portion.
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But that’s half the test! 
In all seriousness, historically, struggling with standardized tests has been the case for international student-athletes at academically stringent institutions.
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PoloEnthusiast,
“Most international players I’ve come across will tell you that the college education they receive here is on par with their high school education.”
US high school education is very, very far from perfect, this is true. But the take above is simply wrong, by a far margin.
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The reason they come at 22 or older to Princeton and Stanford as they want to re-experience their high school years 