- Utah Rep. Burgess Owens chairs congressional hearing examining increasing numbers of international athletes on college rosters.
- Proposed legislation would limit international student-athlete participation to no more than 20% on varsity teams.
- Democrats focus hearing comments on Trump administration student loan policies they assert are harmful to U.S. college students.
Scroll through the rosters of, say, the University of Utah’s men’s basketball team, or BYU’s women’s basketball squad, or the Utah Valley University’s men’s soccer team.
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Counted among the players on those local Utah teams are sizable numbers of international athletes. And those rosters are not outliers.
Athletes from outside the United States are increasingly common — and they’re filling roster spots that, in generations past, were claimed by American-born players.
The reason for the international athlete spike on U.S. collegiate teams is no mystery. A college coach’s job is typically linked to winning. Lose games — lose jobs.
So coaches at, say, a DI men’s basketball team or a women’s tennis team are, understandably, going to recruit the best eligible athletes available — regardless of their passports.
But who should be getting those prized athletic scholarships at American colleges and universities? And how is the global shift in college sports impacting our national programs in Olympic sports?
Those were questions examined Wednesday at a Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee hearing chaired by Utah Rep. Burgess Owens.
The hearing comes two days after Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, introduced the to limit international student-athlete participation to no more than 20% on each varsity sports team.
If it passes, the TEAM USA Act would take effect with the 2029-2030 academic years to allow schools time to adjust recruiting practices.
Owens: College sports culture ‘has become a mess’
A former scholarship athlete at the University of Miami, Owens began Wednesday’s hearing saying that athletic scholarships are prized paths to higher education for many young Americans.
But only about 2% of U.S. high school athletes receive a college athletic scholarship.
“At the same time,” said Owens, “international participation in college athletics has grown substantially, from fewer than 9,000 in 2001 to roughly 25,000 today.”
And that matters, he argued. Scholarships and roster spots are limited. “American families devote years of time and money in youth and high school sports so their kids can compete at the college level.
“Too often, those spots go to older international athletes instead. The pressure to win at all costs in today’s college sports environment has led more coaches to recruit older international athletes instead of American high school graduates.”
That trend is particularly high in certain NCAA DI sports, said Owens, citing statistics that more than 60% of athletes competing in tennis are international. Meanwhile, college hockey is 40% international — and over a third of D1 men’s soccer players are from outside of the United States.
“In basketball, international participation has more than doubled during the last decade. And in the 2025 NCAA (basketball) tournaments, international student athletes made up over 15% of participants,” he said.
The rise of international students on American college rosters is not limited to the sport’s highest levels.
In 2022, noted Owens, the Alabama State men’s tennis team won the Historically Black College and University tournament championship with a roster composed entirely of international student-athletes. And last year, Division II Flagler College won a national tennis title with an all-international roster.
But the consequences of increased international players competing in American college sports goes beyond roster spot availability, said Owens. It also weakens the development of U.S. Olympic talent by providing international athletes with access to elite American coaching, competition and training facilities.
Title IX “greatly expanded” athletic opportunities for women in the United States — but Congress did not intend for those opportunities to be filled by international athletes, Owens added.
“U.S. colleges are significantly contributing to the Olympic success of other countries while taking away scholarship opportunities from American athletes,” said Owens.
“This is a reality that’s in front of us. International recruiting has surged — American kids are losing roster spots. And the college system that helps develop Team USA is also developing everybody else’s teams.
“Our college sports culture has become a mess.”
Democrat warns of ‘further demonizing’ international students
Responding to Owens’ arguments concerning international athletes on U.S. college rosters, Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., said that during the current congressional session, students and teachers “have been through the wringer as the Trump administration ramped up its attacks on public education.”
The American higher education system, added Adams, “has long been the envy of the world,” drawing bright minds from around the world to pursue study and research while enriching academic achievement and cultural diversity.
“Tragically, the Trump administration’s bigoted attacks on international students have made coming to the U.S. to attend college an uncertain and often a dangerous prospect. These students face threats of visa restrictions, termination, and deportation,” said Adams.
The veteran lawmaker added that Wednesday’s hearing on international student-athletes “only serves to further demonize a population already struggling to keep their heads above water.”
McEnroe: College tennis and the ‘canary in the coal mine’
Patrick McEnroe belongs to a storied American tennis family. He’s also a former U.S. Davis Cup captain and a veteran ESPN analyst.
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He recently penned a Wall Street Journal opinion piece entitled “Where Are All the Americans in American College Tennis?”
During Wednesday’s hearing, McEnroe noted that the recent SEC and ACC men’s tennis final featured 24 athletes. Only three were Americans.
He labeled the current NCAA tennis situation “the canary in the coal mine.”
“The same incentives are increasingly showing up across all college sports,” argued McEnroe. “Coaches are under enormous pressure to win now, and if you can recruit an older, fully developed international athlete — often someone who has already competed professionally — why spend several years developing an 18-year-old American?”
The former pro tennis tour player said he’s not hostile toward international athletes. They make teams and universities better.
“But this is about balance and making sure we don’t close the door on our own kids in the process, because roster spots are finite,” he said. “When one athlete gets a spot, another doesn’t.”
Limiting American access to college scholarships impacts middle- and working-class families the most, said McEnroe. An athletic scholarship for such families may be their vehicle to education and mobility.
“For millions of kids, college sports is not a professional dream, it’s the next rung on the ladder,” said McEnroe. “Take away enough rungs and eventually kids stop climbing.”
Leveling the competitive playing field
A former college basketball coach and athletic director, Tommy Brown is now the CEO of One Heartbeat Inc., an athlete-focused leadership training program.
During his testimony Wednesday, Brown called for roster limits for international student-athletes, adding “the fifth year of eligibility that the NCAA has granted is a definite game changer. It’s reduced the number of spots for everyone.”
Brown spoke of working recently with coaches at a junior college soccer program with a roster limit of 10 international players. That rule put the team at a competitive disadvantage.
“However, the coach said one of the positives of having so many American players is that they develop, and many of them end up signing with Division I institutions — and almost all of them sign four-year college scholarships.”
Some may say limiting international roster spots is discriminatory.
“But I’d like to remind everyone that the Canadian Football League limits the number of Americans on their rosters — as do most European basketball leagues, (where teams are) limited to two Americans,” said Brown.
“The reason why they do this is because their roster would be full of Americans if they didn’t.”
Douglas DePeppe is a former college soccer player who now works as an attorney representing college athletes. His research in men’s college soccer tells the story of an unbalanced system.
A key challenge, testified DePeppe at Wednesday’s hearing, is not simply international athletes participating in American college sports. Instead, there are questions that should be addressed regarding unfair, opaque recruiting practices such as disclosing the size of a team’s roster.
“For Congress to legislate on protecting fair access to sport rosters, it should not solely focus on international limits,” argued DePeppe. “It should also legislate on recruiting transparency, and to bar deceptive practices in recruiting.”
Calls for focusing on student loan debt
While Wednesday’s hearing focused primarily on examining college roster spots, several remarks centered on the broader challenges facing higher education in the U.S.
National Student Legal Defense President Aaron Ament noted in his testimony that scholarship athletes represent approximately 1% of American college students.
“Meanwhile, tens of millions of students and student loan borrowers are trapped in a snowballing crisis that is worsening every day during the Trump administration,” said Ament.
“Over the past three decades, average tuition and fees at public four-year colleges have roughly doubled after adjusting for inflation, and tuition at private four-year colleges has climbed almost as much.”
The student loan system, he added, “is in chaos — and students and families are paying the price.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., questioned why the committee, in its final hearing prior to a seven-week recess, was debating international student-athletes when there are broader challenges facing higher education and workforce development.
“So today the Republican majority has chosen to talk about international student participation in college sports,” said Bonamici. “Of course, this sort of villainization of international students comes at a time when the Trump administration is already engaged in some pretty aggressive and illegal immigration enforcement that’s terrorizing immigrant communities, including on college campuses.”
Bonamici added she has yet to take a constituent call regarding international students on college sports teams. Instead, they are anxious about changes to federal student loan repayment plans and rising student debt burden.
“We must do something about the existing student loan debt and, in the long term, make college, for those who choose that path, debt-free.”
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