Men’s Water Polo Shows Largest Growth in Number of International Student-Athletes in Division I Per Latest National Collegiate Athletic Association Country of Origin Data

2018 National Collegiate Athletic Association International Student-Athlete Chart (PDF)

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — 58 international student-athletes competed in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Water Polo competition during the 2015-16 academic year per the latest data recorded on the NCAA’s Country of Origin Spreadsheet for International Student-Athletes.

The most popular nation for international student-athletes in NCAA men’s water polo during the 2015-16 season was Serbia with 16 athletes.  Serbia is the only nation to break into double-digits as Australia (six) and Croatia (six) come in second with six athletes.  Trinidad & Tobago (five), Hungary (four), Montenegro (four), Greece (three), Italy (three), Israel (two) and New Zealand (two) also had multiple athletes competing in NCAA water polo, while Brazil, Canada, France, Mexico, Netherlands-Holland, South Africa and Spain each placed one competitor on an NCAA program’s roster.

Overall, men’s water polo showed the largest growth among international students-athletes on the Division I level from 2010 to 2016 as the percentage grew from seven-to-19 percent for a 12 percent increase.  No other men’s sport experienced a double-digit increase as soccer (18-to-27 percent – nine percent increase) and tennis (48-to-56 percent – eight percent increase) are immediately behind water polo regarding international growth.