BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently released the organization’s latest Trend in Participation of International Student-Athletes Report for the period of 2014-to-2019.
The report is based on percentages of first-year student-athletes (non-transfers) at either Division I or II institutions. Similar data is not available for Division III. Student-athletes with non-United States home addresses were categorized as international. Student-athletes from the 50 U.S. states and U.S. territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, etc.) were considered domestic. In addition, all first-year student-athletes who were in a 2019 Division I Academic Progress Rate cohort or in the 2019 Division II Academic Performance Census were considered in the examination. This criteria may exclude some Division I walk-ons and others who did not meet academic tracking inclusion data in either Division I or II.
In all sports, the growth of international student-athlete participation rose in Division I from 10.2 percent in 2014 to 12.5% in 2019, with growth in Division II rising from 5.8% in 2014 to 7.1% in 2019.
Division I:
During the period of 2014-to-2019, both men’s and women’s water polo experienced percentage changes in the number of international student-athletes.
In men’s water polo, the percentage rose from 3% (2014) to 27% (2019) for the largest margin (24%) among any sport (men or women) during the time period. Tennis (11%), soccer (11%), basketball (6%), cross country (3%), swimming (3%), track (2%), golf (1%) and football (1%) also experienced growth, while lacrosse, baseball, wrestling and gymnastics saw no rise. Fencing (-2%) and volleyball (-4%) were the two sports that saw declines in the percentage of international student-athletes.
In 2019, men’s water polo (27%) had the fourth highest percentage of international student-athletes behind tennis (61%), ice hockey (37%) and soccer (35%) with golf (24%) joining the group among the sports with percentages over 20%.
In women’s water polo (2%), the percentage ticked up from 19% (2014) to 21% (2019) to tie with swimming (2%) and rowing (2%) for ninth in percentage increases among women’s sports. Tennis (9%) experienced the largest growth with field hockey (8%), fencing (8%), fencing (6%), cross country (5%), basketball (5%), track (4%), soccer (4%) and golf (3%) experiencing larger rates of growth compared to swimming, rowing and water polo. Bowling (1%), volleyball (1%) and lacrosse (0%) had minor to zero growth, while softball (-1%), gymnastics (-1%) and ice hockey (-8%) saw international student-athlete rate declines.
Division II:
In Division II, men’s water polo was not tracked as a sport, while women’s water polo experienced the second largest percentage of growth among any sport.
International student-athlete numbers in women’s water polo increased from 2% (2014) to 15% (2019) for a 14% increase rounding up decimal places. The growth trailed only tennis (15%), while field hockey (11%) is the only other sport to experience a greater than 10% rise.
Swimming (4%), golf (3%), basketball (2%), soccer (1%), track (1%), rowing (0%), cross country (0%), lacrosse (0%), volleyball (0%), softball (0%) and bowling (0%) round out the examined women’s sports as none saw a decline among international student-athlete participation.
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