When it comes to the college recruiting process, there is no hotter topic than the status of international actors. With more than 21,000 foreign-born players currently playing college sports, schools are looking overseas more than ever to find players who can make an immediate impact on their roster.
Of all the sports impacted by this influx of players, university football comes out on top, particularly among men where more than 30% of all Division I men’s players come from abroad. This isn’t a new topic for the game: International players have helped teams win the NCAA national championship on both the men’s and women’s sides since the 1960s and 1970s. On the men’s side, the he 2022 Division I National Championship team, Syracuse, included 11 players born outside of the United States. As of 2021, as many as 25 players on NCAA men’s soccer national champion Marshall’s roster were foreign-born. In the meantime, 17 college players will report for countries outside the United States at this year’s Women’s World Cup.
(NCAA Resources for Prospective International Student-Athletes)
The big question though is: How do international players learn about the college system and how is their recruiting process different than those who were born in the United States? Over the coming weeks, SoccerWire will examine different facets of the international recruiting process. This week the focus will be on eligibility.
Here are some of the main NCAA eligibility requirements for international players:
- Players must register at the NCAA Eligibility Center: As with U.S.-born players, international players must register with the NCAA Eligibility Center to ensure their amateur status has been maintained and that they meet the academic requirements to participate. While both points are important, checking your amateur status is important for players coming from abroad. With academy systems around the world organized differently than the youth club system here in the United States, amateur status is not always necessarily a given. It is essential that players provide the appropriate documentation to the NCAA to prove their eligibility status.
- Academic requirements: The NCAA requires all players to provide a transcript from grades 9-12 as well as proof of graduation. Where things get interesting is for players who attend schools in countries where English is not the native language. The NCAA requires players from countries that fit this bill to not only submit a copy of their transcript and proof of graduation (more on that in a minute) in their native language, but players must also submit a line. English translation by line of the two documents. There are also additional requirements as to who can provide translation of documents (for example, colleges cannot provide this service to the player).
- Additional Academic Requirements: In addition, the NCAA may also request additional documentation, including a transcript for their eighth grade equivalent, a copy of their diploma, a grading rubric with information on what constitutes a passing grade and dates course completion.
- Country-by-country standards: To help sift through bureaucracy, the NCAA every year provides a country-by-country breakdown acceptable forms of documentation that can be uploaded to the NCAA Eligibility Center.
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