Why doesn’t every College recruit Kenyans?

Imagine how you will be pounced on when you make an error. There is no need for this behavior. Next time you have the urge to humiliate a fellow runner, think of yourself being humiliated for being a runner. Not nice.

Not an expert but I guess 3 main reasons :

1) Almost everyone of them will need 100% scholarship. And I guess it's not in the set of policy of most colleges to have an entire TF team to be on 100% scholarship.

2) 90% of them have the academic level of an average 5th grade student.

3) Yes they would win, but then think again, if "every" colleges do the same and get EA kids, you'll just move the level of the field higher and the challenge to win will stay the same.

Every nationality of runner in the NCAA has higher graduation rates than American athletes. Foreigners should be significantly higher because coaches apply additional scrutiny when recruiting them because they require much larger scholarships.

If everyone were a billionaire than no one would be rich.

The biggest reason is that most coaches don’t want to turn NCAA distance running into a minor league for potential professional Kenyan runners. In regard to #3, and as I posted before, I don’t believe most ADs really care about XC.

I was initially a biochem major at Amherst in the late naughts (later changed programs) and most of the stuff they taught in first year courses, we'd covered in A-level back in Uganda. But, okay, our education systems are not great, and we pronounce water as water instead of warer.

100%. Firs you have NCAA compliance rules - while often bent and/or skirted around by programs - are there not just to vet recruits but also ensure certain rates of graduation, attendance, and grade point average. Then on top of the NCAA rules and scholarships, they may well lose their student visa and can be unceremoniously sent home once that happens.

For the international students that are coming over (European, African, doesn't matter as long as their academic record can be proven - though for some countries that is easier than others), the schools are making sure they're "worth the trouble" (so to speak) of bringing over and providing the academic and ancillary support over 4+ years of scholarship.

You're right about Tulsa's domestic recruitment. They look a ton regionally particularly (DFW, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis) for athletes and nonathlete students alike. The coasts aren't really an area of focus for them.

But you are walking it back a bit talking about "Whether it’s Kenyans or European" because this thread is titled "Why doesn’t every College recruit Kenyans?" - and that's not at all where Tulsa is pulling international recruits from. They are quite heavy on the UK and Ireland, but those students do have easily vetted academic and athletic backgrounds; that's not the same for a lot of countries unless the students are coming out of reputable preparatory academies. If this thread was "Why doesn’t every College recruit European Nationals" then the criticism would make more sense.

And I am by no means hating on Kenya or other parts of the world; rather I'm acknowledging the fact that there's going to be a quite disparate level of educational opportunity in developing or recently-developed countries.

Lazy British and American students who know where to look can cruise through university using assignments written by Kenyans but on this thread you have people arguing that Kenyans do not know English. A little googling will help you learn that schools in Kenya instruct in English; otherwise, how would they get you those A's?

It's crazy that people on here talking about how unintelligent Kenyans are but many Kenyans in the USA are doctors. They're also IT directors and etc.

They and their families didn't pay taxes.

One to two foreign athletes on the runnning teams is sufficient. Other places should go to athletes whose family have paid taxes, etc.

Because you want to develop your own native athletes. What you think? Everyone is a turncoat like you are and let whoever in the world who is dominating to occupy their programs on your own soil?? Even the most ignorant outsider knows damn well that athletes who naturalize and compete for western countries are not really from here. Its stupid.

Very few schools have (especially complete) need-based financial aid for international students and even fewer are D1 schools with heavy track recruiting.

All that's needed is to ask for a full skolly and you're in

College is more than running. Colleges spend a lot of time recruiting international students from all kinds of different countries. At the same time the competition for Americans is stiff to get into these colleges. People complain about the lack of diversity in good paying American jobs. Actually we have lots of diversity -- Indians and Chinese but not Americans on a H1B visa. Should that count? Of course people blame it on the corporations but if they can't get into the colleges and get the qualifications they need what chance do they have. I would suggest if we want to get diversity (American minorities not international minorities) into good paying American jobs then we should spend more time figuring out how to get them into colleges and less time on recruiting international students and certainly fringe case Kenyans so that they can come run for us.

I was on a team with two Kenyans (one a multiple time NCAA champion in cross country and track) and another (my roommate) who competed only as a freshman (top finish in NCAA 3rd) and then went professional. We also had another Kenyan (former NCAA champion) in town who was past his eligibility but still finishing his schooling.

In order for this pipeline of successful athletes to work, the coach had deep contacts in Kenya and was able to vet the athletes before bringing them in. I was only on that team for one year, but it seemed to me that a big part of the lead generation for recruiting sort of went through the current athletes. In other words, the coach would ask his current Kenyan stars about people he was recruiting to find out if they were legit and also find leads for people to recruit through the athletes' contacts.

I didn't know the details of these guys' scholarships, but I'm pretty certain they were both on full rides. Certainly my roommate was, as he had no money to his name and was not working a job, so no way he could come up with extra money for school expenses. There are challenges to surviving in the USA with zero support, and living with this guy made me sympathetic to what athletes who come from poverty go through. For instance, coming from Kenya, my roommate was completely unequipped for dealing with a harsh winter. I don't know how much, but I know the coach was giving my roommate some cash under the table for survival expenses. When Christmas came around, my roommate traveled home with me and I told my mom not to buy me anything and we went out and got my roommate a solid jacket, quality boots, and a bunch of winter clothes. Others on the team pitched in from time to time to help out since we were all close friends. I didn't really keep track but I probably paid for the majority of our food since I wasn't really hurting for money.

Regarding their educational achievement, I didn't have direct experience with our other Kenyan teammate, but he graduated with a degree in engineering and was an excellent student. My roommate spoke very good English (Kenya is a former English colony so most of them speak English). His written English was not fantastic, but not a disaster. I edited his papers and it was a lot of minor stuff, so he was probably better than the average American student. He worked very hard at school, and though initially graduating with a kind of general business degree, went back at school hard and worked his way from a bachelors through a PhD in a scientific subject, and is now a professor. He became a US citizen through WCAP, is a very intelligent and wonderful person. Probably the highest quality human being I've ever known in my life.

My roommate went professional after his freshman year because of financial reasons. I don't know if I had the story exact but I believe he wanted to work a job in the summer so he could earn money to send home to his family. The incoming coach would not sign the required paperwork allowing him to work a full time job (some kind of NCAA regulation which I didn't understand) so he gave up his scholarship and went pro on the roads, earning something like $80k that summer (it was a long time ago so that was a lot of money). He eventually ran very well at distances from 10k to marathon.

Overall, for our team, Kenyans won a lot of individual NCAA championships for us, so they tended to pay out. This was probably entirely due to the quality of the recruiting pipeline. Most of them stayed the full 4 years. Without the pipeline, I can imagine it is difficult to get something like this off the ground without a lot of mistakes being made. Most coaches probably weigh the risk/reward and don't think it's worth it. Now that US kids are running so fast, it's probably a better bet to build out your team with second tier guys on partials. If you're going overseas, it's probably a lot simpler to recruit Europeans and Australians who have more easily vetted credentials.

Do you carry these same thoughts to the Pro Clubs in the US? Should they be developing Americans only?

You would want BTC to mostly develop athletes that will run for a foreign country in the WC and the Olympics?