How International Swimmers Might Fit Into New Era of NCAA Swimming
The transition to the new era of college swimming has begun, most recently with Cal and Stanford making their mark in the no-longer-aptly-named Atlantic Coast Conference and soon with hard roster caps taking effect in major conferences beginning with the 2025-26 season. With the new roster caps, the NCAA will allow universities to grant full scholarships to their entire rosters, but schools will have the option to increase or decrease their funding for each sport as desired.
How about an even greater financial disparity? Imagine the removal of a salary cap akin to Major League Baseball, where the Miami Marlins and a $47 million payroll will try to compete against the New York Mets dolling out more than $315 million to players. With that imbalance, teams with less resources will surely seek creative solutions to remain competitive.
One potential loophole involves increasing recruitment of international swimmers, who already play a key role within college swimming. Of the three men’s relay records set at last week’s NCAA Championships, both Tennessee sprint freestyle relays were comprised entirely of non-American swimmers while Julian Smith was the only U.S.-native swimmer on Florida’s 400 medley relay.
Florida’s Josh Liendo — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Aside from the obvious talent that foreign swimmers bring to their teams — consider recent NCAA titlists Leon Marchand, Josh Liendo, Jordan Crooks and more — they also bring value because they are usually unable to accept NIL payments while competing for U.S. universities. A Sports Illustrated article published in November 2023 explains that most international NCAA competitors come to the U.S. as legal residents on an F-1 visa, which creates the challenge.
“Students on an F-1 visa are not allowed to engage in employment outside of ‘on-campus’ work or other specific programs geared toward career development – none of these exemptions allow for traditional influencer-based NIL activations,” the article stated. That rules out all forms of “active NIL engagements,” which comprise the vast majority of student-athletes’ income from NIL deals. Thus, coaches could opt to recruit more international swimmers seeking to gain an advantage, freeing their team of spending the program’s limited NIL budget on this slate of potentially-elite newcomers.
However, obstacles to bringing in foreign participants could arise, with recent bills introduced in the Texas legislature potentially foreshadowing what is to come. According to Front Office Sports, state Senator Brandon Creighton introduced a bill earlier this month that would “mandate that public colleges in Texas only offer 25% of total ‘athletic scholarships, grants, or other financial assistance’ to athletes who aren’t U.S. citizens each year.” State Rep. Drew Darby introduced a similar bill in the state House.
Front Office Sports included insight from a legislative source who believed that “allowing foreign athletes to receive athletic scholarship money, partially funded by American taxpayer dollars, ‘undermines the primary goal of non-revenue collegiate sports, which is to provide educational opportunities for U.S. citizens.'”
From a swimming perspective, the only Division I programs sponsored by state public universities are the University of Texas, Texas A&M and Houston (women only). If the bills pass, it is unclear the extent to which these swimming programs would be allowed to continue bringing in foreign swimmers.
The Aggies have traditionally relied heavily on international contributions, but the Longhorns have mostly stuck with recruiting U.S. athletes. The Texas men captured 15 NCAA team titles under legendary coach Eddie Reese with only two foreign swimmers contributing heavily, and both Joseph Schooling and Caspar Corbeau had spent extensive time in the U.S. prior to joining the program. The Texas women have followed a similar strategy, with World Championships medal-winning breaststroker Anna Elendt a recent exception.
Bottom line, the Texas swimming programs would probably not be too hamstrung from national contention if this bill becomes law. It remains to be seen if this is a blip or if other states will pursue similar legislation. In the meantime, an absence of restrictions on foreign recruitment will surely lead to teams delving deeper into that untapped talent pool, hoping to unearth hidden gems.
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