Foreign College Athletes Changing the Game
Written by: Adam Newcomer
Foreign College Athletes Changing the Game
Recently, the NCAA has become part of trend that is taking over sports in America. International athletes. Over the past 10 years, international athletes have become a large part of college sports, and have become integral to the NCAA, and more generally, to the United State’s economy. The increase in foreign athletes has made audiences across the globe tune into American sports.
The first international college athlete that slowly started a trend of foreign players coming to play in America was Hakeem Olajuwon. Hakeem grew up in Nigeria, but was recruited by the University of Houston and went on to have a very successful career there, taking the team to several Final Fours, and eventually Hakeem became an NBA superstar.
Two decades later, athletes are coming from abroad in droves to participate in NCAA athletics. According to Online Athens, the number of male and female athletes from other countries more than doubled from 1999 to 2010, as they increased from 1.8 to 3.8 percent and 1.5 to 4.3 percent, respectively (Lewter). All of these athletes have friends and family in their hometown and country that are either watching sporting events from home or actually coming to America to spectate the events, increasing their demand.
One recent example of this is former Gonzaga basketball player Przemek Karnowski. Przemek is from Torun, Poland, with a population of about 200,000. (Schroeder). When Gonzaga faced North Carolina in the national championship game, Przemek’s dad was in attendance, and many of his friends and family were likely watching at home too.
The impact that this has on the American economy is monumental. Most sports fans in America know what they are interested in and tune into those events, so there isn’t a very large audience for the NCAA to grow domestically. But there is a much greater opportunity to spread awareness and increase viewership by involving other countries, and recruiting athletes from those countries is a great way to do that. This large increase in viewership really bolsters the NCAA’s revenue, which in turn is helpful to the American economy. In a way, this increases the net exports of the country due to the increased viewership. In conclusion, the increase in foreign athletes in college sports has greatly helped the NCAA, and the United States.
Works Cited
Lewter, Mariya. “International athletes seek NCAA for development, better competition”. Online Athens, 28 Mar. 2015, http://onlineathens.com/sports/2015-05-28/international-athletes-seek-ncaa-development-better-competition.
Schroeder, George. “Gonzaga's Przemek Karnowski will be huge factor in battle of bigs vs. UNC”. USA Today, 2 Apr. 2017, https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2017/04/02/gonzaga-przemek-karnowski-huge-factor-north-carolina-national-championship/99962264/.
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