Marshall U wins NCAA men’s soccer with 25 foreign athletes

I have nothing against foreign athletes competing in the NCAA, but they should not make up a majority of a team while on scholarship. Probably what Marshall University has to do to be competitive.

The head coach is from the UK.

Sounds like an easy way to get a few victories with having to develop athletes.

Typo, should say without having to develop athletes

I have no problem with them doing this. Clearly it is working, if American kids want a scholarship they should get better. International students apply to US universities and receive academic scholarships, why should this be capped with athletic scholarships?

It's not that complicated. The coach gets rewarded the more he/she wins, regardless of where the athletes come from. The coach has an interest in fielding the best team possible. The coach is able to recruit better players from overseas than from the United States.

I was thinking with Marshall that many of the foreign players may not have had any idea where Marshall was when they agreed to go there, all they knew is that they were getting a scholarship to go play soccer and get a college education in the United States.

YSA wrote:

Typo, should say without having to develop athletes

This argument doesn’t make sense, same as when people make it about recruiting Kenyans on a cross country team. Coaches are still working to develop the talent they have.

Men's soccer is allowed to offer 9.9 scholarships. So, either Marshall has gotten really creative with alternative ways to get their soccer players on scholarship, or there are a bunch of families in Europe who are paying out of state tuition to send their sons to play soccer in West Virginia.

NoVan wrote:

or there are a bunch of families in Europe who are paying out of state tuition to send their sons to play soccer in West Virginia.

Almost heaven.

NoVan wrote:

Men's soccer is allowed to offer 9.9 scholarships. So, either Marshall has gotten really creative with alternative ways to get their soccer players on scholarship, or there are a bunch of families in Europe who are paying out of state tuition to send their sons to play soccer in West Virginia.

Exactly, foreign athletes are only going to become more prevalent.

But men's track has 12.6 (most teams can stack with academic aid, but that is not money that athletic departments pay). Soccer has 9.9. Tennis has 4.5. Tennis is the closest of the big international sports to being able to give internationals big scholarships to fill the whole roster.

Lots of Europeans are willing to pay for part of their degrees as well to be on good teams.

This isn't as much of an issue for the elite college programs who can stock their roster with the best American players. It's the mid-majors like Marshall that can't land the top-tier American kid, so their choice is between the second-tier American kid or a foreign kid, and in many cases the foreign kid is better.

I randomly checked Notre Dame's men's soccer roster. 28 out of 32 are American, 3 are Canadian, and 1 is from Northern Ireland (which may not count as foreign at ND).

This is DISGUSTING.

Our NCAA system is solely developing international athletes. That's why USA men's soccer can't qualify for the Olympics or the World Cup. Young American soccer players never get a chance to play in their own country, they are pushed out by foreigners who had a soccer ball by their feet by the time they could walk.

Point noted.

However, often, foreign athletes come in as freshman older with more mature bodies.

In male sports this makes a big difference and provides competitive advantage. In soccer, as in Track and field, that alone alters the ability for a 18 year old (typical age of a US freshman) to compete against a 19, 20 or beyond typical freshman age of a foreign athlete.

Age advantage helps with muscular development for soccer players and endurance development for distance athletes. This raises the bar so-to-speak which can be good in setting something to strive for. The unexpected consequences may greater impact Track and field because the times to run expectations due to an international athlete marketplace causes coaches and athletes to rush development in the earlier grades of high school in order to get a look by their junior year. This often leads to injury or burn-out and a depletion of US talent during the critical development period of 18-22 years old. Soccer being a physical impact sport, an 18 year old male competing against a 20 year old male for a freshman spot or 24 or 26 senior for a starting lineup spot... Young guys competing against men leads to an unnecessary added degree of injury. So if you are a really good incoming freshman you might see a few minutes of playing time or be red shirted if the program can afford to pay to have really good future potential sit on the bench to gain the maturity necessary going forward.

Realizing this it becomes quite clear something needs to be done to curb coaches building their programs on an overwhelming number of foreign athletes as is the case with Marshall University.

What's shocking to me is that they have nearly 50 players on their roster. I didn't think collegiate soccer squads had that many. Anyway, that half of them were born overseas doesn't bother me. Some then came to the US and have gone through academy programs of MLS teams before joining Marshall. Others yes just came from their homelands, like with any sport. I wouldn't fight that hard against an international roster cap for NCAA sports, but it's just limiting the competition for Americans in the system if you do so. I don't know of any sports, other than maybe tennis, where there aren't plenty enough US kids getting their shots.

truth here wrote:

This is DISGUSTING.

Our NCAA system is solely developing international athletes. That's why USA men's soccer can't qualify for the Olympics or the World Cup. Young American soccer players never get a chance to play in their own country, they are pushed out by foreigners who had a soccer ball by their feet by the time they could walk.

This may be a troll post, but if not it's pretty uninformed.

The top American players don't play college soccer. College rosters have no bearing on the United States' ability to qualify for the World Cup, and have minimal bearing on qualification for the Olympics.

Our best players now are professionals by the time they are 18.

I'm willing to change my mind on this one, but my initial thought is that it's completely fine for colleges to bring in foreign players like this. Here are a couple factors going into my thought process:

1) Marshall has, in the past, been one of the WORST D1 soccer programs in America. They play in Conference USA, which is a Mid-Major Conference that struggles to get teams into the later rounds of the NCAA Tournament. In 2016 they went 6-13-1 losing to teams like High Point, Evansville, and Texas-Rio Grande. With the new coach they've started to turn it around. But they've never been "good" before now. They've never really been competitive at the high level in college.

2) Most high-quality American players are now looking for opportunities away from the college game. They ideally want to go to a European club as a teenager, but then their second choice is to sign an MLS homegrown contract and play for an MLS or USL team when they are 18-22. This mirrors the systems for development set up in Europe. American players in college are no longer this country's top upcoming talents. The guys playing in college are now guys who aren't convinced they can make it as a pro, and want to utilize their skills for a good education and experience for when they eventually have to stop playing soccer. These "top" American college players are now choosing schools based on academics, facilities, and the college experience rather than programs that can potentially turn them to the pro level. Top mid majors like Akron and Creighton have suffered a lot from this shift, and schools like Stanford have benefitted a lot from this shift.

3) Marshall has traditionally struggled to recruit higher quality American players to play for them. Part of this is the school's location, part of this is the school's academics, part of it is the mid-major conference/facilities. Even if there was some cap on foreign players in the NCAA, Marshall will not be getting the players who are deciding between schools like Indiana, Stanford, North Carolina, etc.

4) I would much rather, personally, see mid-major college programs keep a high level of talent using international players to keep the college game competitive.

So, I'm happy for Marshall for shaking things up in the college soccer scene. It helps that Marshall plays a very attractive playstyle rather than relying on reductive tactics you see often in the NCAA tournament.

Completely not surprised. Have you ever been to Huntington?

It has to be incredibly difficult to recruit at Marshall.

Being labeled the overdose capital of America 10 years ago is a tough cloud for any city to get out from under.

No wonder they won, it was 25 guys vs 11 on the other team.

Yes, the number of players on Marshall’s roster is astounding. Can’t imagine how it is possible to train a group that size. To logistically manage it all - I tip my hat to the coaching staff.

Nevertheless, my previous points of contention come from my being a foreign athlete having benefited from the US system humbled and grateful for my experience and opportunity gained yet perplexed and frustrated to learn about the huge numbers of foreign athletes and resulting impact on US athletes not getting a shot.

People can agree or disagree.

Tall Tree wrote:

Nevertheless, my previous points of contention come from my being a foreign athlete having benefited from the US system humbled and grateful for my experience and opportunity gained yet perplexed and frustrated to learn about the huge numbers of foreign athletes and resulting impact on US athletes not getting a shot.

To keep this about running, I think you've raised good points about how many foreign players come in to the college system older than your traditional American-born freshman, and how there are muscular differences between a 21-year-old and an 18-year-old. I suppose my argument is that college soccer is not a great analogy compared to college track/xc because the true top Americans (and foreign players, for that matter) are not playing college soccer.