EUGENE, OREGON – JULY 15: Anjelina Nadai Lohalith of Team Athlete Refugee competes in the Women's … [+]
Rita Gary is a mother before she’s a coach.
And so, when it comes to being a mother, the Furman University women’s head coach of cross country and track and field aspires for her son, a high school soccer player, to have the kind of opportunities she knows will shape him in the future. That includes college soccer.
“I do know how much I want him involved in sport,” Gary said. “I want him to know how sports will teach him about hard work, values and goal-setting.”
At the college level right now, however, scholarships are becoming increasingly harder to come by for American-born players. NCAA rules currently limit men’s soccer programs to roughly 10 scholarships per team – though an upcoming House vs. NCAA settlement would upend the idea of scholarship limits.
The 2024 NCAA men’s soccer champions, the Vermont Catamounts, in a rather surprise momentum swing through the tournament this past year, featured 12 international players on a roster of 28, which accounted for 42 percent of the overall roster. The men’s soccer team at Clemson, meanwhile – the public university in South Carolina where the Gary’s reside – featured a roster of 38-percent international players.
“I understand athletics are a different arm of the university and funding comes from different avenues,” Gary said. “But I think (public universities) should uphold the values of the charters in which they were founded.”
Which brings us to Texas, because lawmakers last week introduced two identical bills into the Senate and the House of Representatives that are aiming to put a cap on the amount of scholarships public, state-run universities can offer non-U.S. athletes over a given year.
Senate Bill 1319, which was introduced by Senator Brandon Creighton, and House Bill 3100, which was placed by Republic Drew Darby, outlined legislation that would earmark only 25-percent of scholarships – which includes grants and financial assistance – to foreign athletes over an academic year.
“Despite what you may be led to believe, college sports are not a business, and our universities will not be in the business of maximizing profit for shareholders but providing educational and athletic opportunities for the American citizens whose tax dollars fund their operations,” Darby told Front Office Sports, which first reported the bills. “The legislation still allows for foreign recruits to play on scholarship but ensures that the system is not being abused to recruit talent for the sole purpose of winning and deviating from the sacred mission of post-secondary education.”
Gary is an outside perspective looking in. But she also is well aware of how sport is changing in today’s modern era.
“I do appreciate diversity,” Gary said, emphasizing the point. “Diversity is the spice of life. I don’t think this needs to be an either or situation. But I would hate to see the pendulum swing so far in the other direction.”
While millions of dollars are funneling into football and basketball programs through collectives and NIL deals, Olympic sports are just trying to get by with the resources that have been allocated to them.
That’s led leaders of track and field programs to think outside of the box over the last five to 10 years, with some building strategic pipelines outside the U.S.
For sprint-based programs, that has meant landing talent from hotbeds like Nigeria and the Caribbean. Distance-led teams, meanwhile, have looked to Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Even on an individual front, that strategy has paid off for public universities in Texas. In 2024, the Texas Tech men won an indoor title, utilizing core involvement from international recruits – in total, 14 athletes out of a roster of 59.
In 2022 and 2023, the University of Texas men and women won indoor and outdoor titles, with some key performances coming from international recruits.
In 2023, St Lucia-born sprinter Julien Alfred even won the Bowerman Award – essentially the Heisman of track – stamping her name in Longhorns history. She went on to win the Olympic gold at 100 meters in 2024 in Paris.
Her success at Texas was in large part due to Edrick Florèal’s coaching savvy and long-term thinking – born in Haiti and an Olympian for Canada in 1988 and 1992, Florèal is considered one of the NCAA’s top track and field coaches and has a pulse on developing athletes from inside and outside the U.S.
PARIS, FRANCE – AUGUST 3: Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia celebrates after winning the gold medal in … [+]
The ramifications of putting limits on scholarships for Texas schools could have wide-reaching impacts on the other side of the coin, too – the difference, perhaps, in signing an athlete of Alfred’s caliber and not doing so. Eliminating opportunities could also stunt the development for hundreds of future athletes.
According to an NCAA study from 2023, international athletes account for roughly 14-percent of men’s and women’s teams in Division I track and field – while in tennis, those numbers jump to 64-percent and 61-percent. A total of 25,000 international students participate across NCAA Division I, II and III, while a record 520,000 athletes were reported in the NCAA in 2022.
Gary says the pendulum may be beginning to swing a little too much in the other direction. Without guardrails, trends can begin to change the sport entirely. When reached for comment, Texas Tech head coach Wes Kittley (was open to, but) declined to comment, while Texas coach Floréal did not respond to an email sent to him.
In 2024, the Texas Tech men’s cross country team was 33-percent international and included five Kenyans, one of which who is currently 28 years old.
Core objectives at the athletic level could be driving decision-making. Or perhaps it’s just a matter of developing a winning formula.
“What are coaches being asked to do,” Gary said. “If it’s winning at all costs, then I guess they’re just doing their job. But that’s why I like how legislation is stepping in.
“We need to level-set. What are our values? Where do we see athletics benefitting our communities, and what does that look like? That, to me, is the greater part of this conversation.”
