{"id":833371,"date":"2026-07-30T12:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833371\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T12:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T12:10:16","slug":"why-college-basketballs-international-player-pipeline-is-stuck-in-ncaa-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/833371\/","title":{"rendered":"Why college basketball\u2019s international player pipeline is stuck in NCAA limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The international players market in college basketball has exploded. At the Final Four in April, all four teams had at least one international player in their rotation, with Arizona and Illinois starting multiple Europeans.<\/p>\n

For these overseas players\u2019 eligibility, there had been a \u201cwe\u2019ll figure it out\u201d vibe, and the NCAA had done nothing to discourage the migration.<\/p>\n

That changed May 8, when the NCAA sent guidance reiterating that athletes who had been paid above \u201cactual and necessary expenses\u201d would not be eligible to play college basketball.<\/p>\n

That emphasis was directed at older, more accomplished professionals such as Quinn Ellis, a 23-year-old point guard who signed with St. John\u2019s in the spring after starting 30 games this past season in EuroLeague, the top professional league in the world outside the NBA. Now the status of a long list of newcomers who played professionally overseas, particularly those who earned a paycheck, is up in the air. Some are awaiting clearance from the NCAA before moving to the United States, forcing them to miss summer practices.<\/p>\n

The tone from coaches has changed as the school year approaches. In the late spring and early summer, most coaches seemed to think players such as Ellis would be cleared and the NCAA would hold off on stricter enforcement of the \u201cactual and necessary expenses\u201d requirement until 2027-28. After all, most players had already signed to play this upcoming season under the previous enforcement.<\/p>\n

As of mid-July, many of those players have yet to be cleared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of uncertainty, especially now,\u201d said an ACC coach, who, like the other coaches quoted in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity so he could speak freely about recruiting strategies without fear of retribution from the NCAA. \u201cI know a lot of coaches and a lot of teams don\u2019t have their internationals, and don\u2019t know when they\u2019ll be here \u2014 or if they\u2019ll get them at all, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

How many college basketball players will make more money than LeBron?<\/p>\n

An NCAA source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told The Athletic that one reason for the delay is that there is more urgency to work through the paperwork for international athletes participating in fall sports \u2014 women\u2019s soccer and tennis also have a large international contingent. The NCAA also does not publicize when an athlete is cleared. Instead, it\u2019s up to the schools to announce clearance \u2014 which many have not \u2014 breeding more uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Coaches who are trying to get their players cleared, or recruiting players who might be on the fringes of eligibility, say that the holdup stems from whether an athlete has earned more than \u201cactual and necessary expenses.\u201d Multiple coaches and the NCAA source said that where a player competed is taken into consideration. For instance, if a player played in Paris, his \u201cactual and necessary expenses\u201d may be significantly higher than someone playing in a small, less expensive city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just scrutinizing that to a level that was not what happened last year,\u201d a Big 12 head coach said.<\/p>\n

That coach has shifted his attention away from international players to a new class of players who have exhausted their eligibility but, as of now, could return to play one more season. Earlier this month, an Ohio judge granted a temporary injunction to 15 Division I college players<\/a> whose eligibility ran out after this past season. The ruling has led to several other lawsuits and a belief among coaches that those players will eventually be considered eligible.<\/p>\n

The uncertainty is already reshaping how programs approach recruiting overseas. In a poll of 25 high-major coaches at Nike\u2019s annual EYBL Peach Jam<\/a>, most said their future efforts will be focused on younger, high-school-aged athletes overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of the older international kids have been siphoned off already,\u201d an ACC assistant coach said. \u201cThere\u2019s just not that many left that haven\u2019t come over. So I think the eligibility issues are going to be less and less because it\u2019s going to be much more 18-year-olds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new trend is bringing players over earlier, as Duke and UCLA have done with Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje and Nikola Kusturica, both 17-year-olds who will probably play at least two years of college basketball because they are not eligible for the NBA Draft until 2028. Both are projected to be lottery picks.<\/p>\n

Those younger players tend to draw less NCAA scrutiny because international clubs rarely give big salaries to young players. The NCAA\u2019s new age-based eligibility model<\/a>, which starts a student-athlete\u2019s clock the year after they turn 19 or graduate high school, also incentivizes getting those players earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll treat them all the same,\u201d a Big Ten coach said. \u201cHigh school kids are getting paid in the United States. \u2026 I think it will come to some realization of what pro athletes look like through their contracts. And we\u2019ll all treat them the same internationally. And the age limit will help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agents overseas are already sending their top prospects to the United States earlier because of the pay-for-play model. However, the market overseas could be adjusting as well. Gonzaga point guard Mario Saint-Supery recently signed what\u2019s believed to be a multimillion-dollar, four-year deal<\/a> with Spanish club Valencia. Several coaches thought that was more likely a one-off example rather than a possible trend, but it\u2019s something to monitor during the next few cycles.<\/p>\n

\"Mario<\/p>\n

\n Mario Saint-Supery abruptly left Gonzaga for a Spanish club, but coaches believe that is a rare instance. (Troy Wayrynen \/ Reuters Connect)<\/p>\n

Programs such as Gonzaga once dominated international recruiting, but the market has become more competitive in recent years with a bigger pool of players entering the pipeline. While most coaches believe there is more talent in the United States, a few said that the quality of top players in Europe matches the U.S. for the next few classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have some studs in Europe that I think all of us will be in some dogfights over,\u201d one ACC assistant said.<\/p>\n

Those top prospects will probably demand prices similar to top prospects playing abroad, but an issue one coach said he is starting to experience with agents overseas is a misunderstanding of the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the things that agents in the European basketball community can struggle with is, \u2018Wait, my 18-year-old isn\u2019t ready to compete in an under-24 league?\u2019\u201d the first ACC assistant said. \u201cThey don\u2019t quite understand that we\u2019re not going to pay or play your 18-year-old right now, and it\u2019s not because we don\u2019t think he\u2019s good \u2014 it\u2019s just that he\u2019s not ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those agents will probably still send their players to colleges \u2014 even for a lower rate than their older clients get because it\u2019s still more than what their clubs can afford overseas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s going to happen with Europe is it\u2019s going to level set again if you have to start taking kids out of one class,\u201d a Big 12 coach said. \u201cThe last few years, we\u2019ve been able to take kids out of five classes. You had this wide range of guys you could take. The guy could be playing for Barcelona, like real games. I think that\u2019s going to go away, but I still think that more top European kids are going to come here, just because I don\u2019t think the economics of European basketball \u2014 they won\u2019t be able to invest in it, you know?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t overpay a young player out there because they can\u2019t impact winning like they can for a college team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The forthcoming decisions on players such as Ellis could also dictate which players coaches recruit going forward, but in the immediate term, those decisions could have major implications on programs such as St. John\u2019s and LSU, whose fate probably rests on the eligibility of their international commitments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The international players market in college basketball has exploded. At the Final Four in April, all four teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,1418,85],"class_list":["post-833371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-mens-college-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}