You are punting on the big question. Do American universities exist primarily to educate American youth, including American tennis players, or to have the best tennis teams?
I’d also add that Division III already operates much closer to the model you’re describing: no athletic scholarships, a stronger emphasis on the student-athlete experience, and less of a win-at-all-costs recruiting structure.
So maybe the real question is whether people want Division I college tennis to look more like Division III. That’s a fair debate—but it’s a different debate than blaming international players for taking spots.
Thanks for your feedback. I don’t think I’m punting on it at all—I think that is the question, and reasonable people can answer it differently.
If universities decide college tennis should primarily serve American player development, they can absolutely create policies around that. But then we should say openly that the goal is developmental protection, not pure merit competition.
Right now, most universities operate athletics around fielding the strongest teams possible within NCAA rules. That’s true in many sports and in academics too—schools recruit globally for talent.
My point is that blaming international players misses a deeper issue: if American tennis wants more Americans winning those roster spots on merit, the development system has to improve.
Nobody is blaming international students for anything unless they're cheating or something. Similar to how nobody blames illegal immigrants for coming to US in hopes of free stuff/better life. Blame, if one has a problem with it, goes to those who permit and/or encourage it. International tennis players are doing nothing wrong, but universities that operate with tax-free status and many with huge sums of government research funding focusing so many resources on non-citizens/non-taxpayers is not surprisingly offensive to some tax payers. Maybe especially offensive if you have a son/daughter at 10UTR who just missed the cut.
You’re right. Not enough American players developed here. I notice European schools don’t offer paid tuition, room and board for baseball, softball - really any sports at their universities, likely because European and South American communities aren’t producing those players. So let’s follow their model, do away with tennis and just make it a club level sport, akin to the level of American competition. That way we’re not just giving away valuable university admissions to foreign students, particularly when state and federal tax payers subsidize our schools.
Your argument seems to miss one fundamental point - these are schools that are to serve the state and community by providing an education and generating generational growth. I too have lived in Germany, England, and grew up in the heart of Florida tennis. I have watched decades of foreign students take the valuable opportunity of an US education and then never reinvest in a US community. At best, as a tennis pro at a club. Many just use it as a pipeline for more foreign players. For decades the tennis community bought the steroidal cache of international tennis players coming in, no different than any other bougie’ pursuit and now it’s come back to haunt them. How would anyone expect a groundswell of community support to save a team when they don’t see their community in that team? D1 tennis stadiums are empty because the students don’t know the players and players don’t know their fellow students - just another crop of Brazilians, Brits, Czech or German passing through.
It’s all laughable. Just do away with this and make it a club level sport, return the university admissions to applicants and families who truly want to attend the school. Reinvest those resources in other activities with grass root US support. We clearly have not built accessible quality tennis in the US under this model, we’re just subsidizing foreigners interest in the sport with our tax dollars and seats in classrooms at US universities. Or at least until prestigious European universities start offering their seats to US baseball, softball, football players to come over for an education, while denying their own European students, and while claiming “there just aren’t enough quality tight ends and shortstops coming out of London or Frankfurt so we just have to deny access to the European families who pay taxes to support these schools!”
I actually think this article is spot on as a parent of a D2 player who is on a team with several International students. The reality is a 10 UTR isn’t going to cut it at many schools - not for a line-up spot. Parents and players need to adjust their reality. The reasons why International players began to populate NAIA and lower division schools was because American players only coveted the D1 schools, whether or not they could actually compete at that level. I agree with closing loopholes, but my experience has been that most of the Internationals I know coming in have been 18-19 years old. And, many are paying higher tuition, which universities need/love. Scholarships are typically only partial across many tennis programs. This will need to be the case, if we expect universities to maintain tennis programs. There will be less funding. So, it becomes an issue of who is willing to play at the highest levels or any level? Americans or Internationals? Who is going to pay to play? American families or International families? Finally, let’s remember the collegiate path for International tennis players is a student run club experience. They want our system of college sports and we seem to need their system of junior development. For the record, my son does not yet play line-up. The Internationals have those spots on his team, but he is thriving on his team and his life experience and cultural experience are forever enriched by the brotherhood he shares with those guys.
The problem is, in part, the $ facade of UTR and gaming the UTR for points. Add that to any discussion of cheating and how these issues have fed each off other into the metastatic mess it is.
Excellent analysis.
America shouldn’t fear competition but welcome it
Thank you for sharing this feedback!
You are punting on the big question. Do American universities exist primarily to educate American youth, including American tennis players, or to have the best tennis teams?
I’d also add that Division III already operates much closer to the model you’re describing: no athletic scholarships, a stronger emphasis on the student-athlete experience, and less of a win-at-all-costs recruiting structure.
So maybe the real question is whether people want Division I college tennis to look more like Division III. That’s a fair debate—but it’s a different debate than blaming international players for taking spots.
Thanks for your feedback. I don’t think I’m punting on it at all—I think that is the question, and reasonable people can answer it differently.
If universities decide college tennis should primarily serve American player development, they can absolutely create policies around that. But then we should say openly that the goal is developmental protection, not pure merit competition.
Right now, most universities operate athletics around fielding the strongest teams possible within NCAA rules. That’s true in many sports and in academics too—schools recruit globally for talent.
My point is that blaming international players misses a deeper issue: if American tennis wants more Americans winning those roster spots on merit, the development system has to improve.
Nobody is blaming international students for anything unless they're cheating or something. Similar to how nobody blames illegal immigrants for coming to US in hopes of free stuff/better life. Blame, if one has a problem with it, goes to those who permit and/or encourage it. International tennis players are doing nothing wrong, but universities that operate with tax-free status and many with huge sums of government research funding focusing so many resources on non-citizens/non-taxpayers is not surprisingly offensive to some tax payers. Maybe especially offensive if you have a son/daughter at 10UTR who just missed the cut.
You’re right. Not enough American players developed here. I notice European schools don’t offer paid tuition, room and board for baseball, softball - really any sports at their universities, likely because European and South American communities aren’t producing those players. So let’s follow their model, do away with tennis and just make it a club level sport, akin to the level of American competition. That way we’re not just giving away valuable university admissions to foreign students, particularly when state and federal tax payers subsidize our schools.
Your argument seems to miss one fundamental point - these are schools that are to serve the state and community by providing an education and generating generational growth. I too have lived in Germany, England, and grew up in the heart of Florida tennis. I have watched decades of foreign students take the valuable opportunity of an US education and then never reinvest in a US community. At best, as a tennis pro at a club. Many just use it as a pipeline for more foreign players. For decades the tennis community bought the steroidal cache of international tennis players coming in, no different than any other bougie’ pursuit and now it’s come back to haunt them. How would anyone expect a groundswell of community support to save a team when they don’t see their community in that team? D1 tennis stadiums are empty because the students don’t know the players and players don’t know their fellow students - just another crop of Brazilians, Brits, Czech or German passing through.
It’s all laughable. Just do away with this and make it a club level sport, return the university admissions to applicants and families who truly want to attend the school. Reinvest those resources in other activities with grass root US support. We clearly have not built accessible quality tennis in the US under this model, we’re just subsidizing foreigners interest in the sport with our tax dollars and seats in classrooms at US universities. Or at least until prestigious European universities start offering their seats to US baseball, softball, football players to come over for an education, while denying their own European students, and while claiming “there just aren’t enough quality tight ends and shortstops coming out of London or Frankfurt so we just have to deny access to the European families who pay taxes to support these schools!”
I actually think this article is spot on as a parent of a D2 player who is on a team with several International students. The reality is a 10 UTR isn’t going to cut it at many schools - not for a line-up spot. Parents and players need to adjust their reality. The reasons why International players began to populate NAIA and lower division schools was because American players only coveted the D1 schools, whether or not they could actually compete at that level. I agree with closing loopholes, but my experience has been that most of the Internationals I know coming in have been 18-19 years old. And, many are paying higher tuition, which universities need/love. Scholarships are typically only partial across many tennis programs. This will need to be the case, if we expect universities to maintain tennis programs. There will be less funding. So, it becomes an issue of who is willing to play at the highest levels or any level? Americans or Internationals? Who is going to pay to play? American families or International families? Finally, let’s remember the collegiate path for International tennis players is a student run club experience. They want our system of college sports and we seem to need their system of junior development. For the record, my son does not yet play line-up. The Internationals have those spots on his team, but he is thriving on his team and his life experience and cultural experience are forever enriched by the brotherhood he shares with those guys.
The problem is, in part, the $ facade of UTR and gaming the UTR for points. Add that to any discussion of cheating and how these issues have fed each off other into the metastatic mess it is.