g”Take your program to the next level!” This is the pitch that is circulating across the top NCAA colleges. This comes from a company that recruits foreign track & cross-country athletes and plugs them straight into the American college system. The selling point is the fact that they are creating an opportunity and want colleges to capitalize on it. But BYU’s head coach Ed Eyestone isn’t buying the hype, and that may have ruffled a few feathers.

“It doesn’t help the U.S. developmental effort. It doesn’t encourage young American talent; it discourages them,” said the BYU Head Coach, Ed Eyestone, while having a conversation with the Deseret. There is some truth to his comments. According to Let’s Run, 112 of the 261 competitors in the men’s NCAA Cross Country field are foreign-born, which makes up to a massive 43% of all athletes who are from outside of the US. Only eight out of 31 teams made up entirely of American athletes.

This is certainly a concerning statistic. However, while Eyestone views this trend as a threat, Oklahoma head coach Dave Smith takes a far more direct stance.”If I believe if someone doesn’t like a rule or doesn’t like a situation in the NCAA, don’t b**ch about it. Go change it. Get involved, get involved in the sport, get involved in the leadership and make change the way change is supposed to be made. Otherwise, shut up and coach your team,” said the Oklahoma head coach when asked about Eyestone’s recent remarks to Deseret regarding the growing influx of foreign athletes.

When the camera panned to Iowa State head coach Jeremy Sudbury, he chimed in to the exact tune of Smith, “I think I’ll piggyback on that. I think, you know, everybody has a chance to build a team how they want to. I think if you’re doing it within the NCAA rules and the outlines of what we’re allowed to do and what’s permissible.”  That’s a fiery rebuttal to Eyestone’s stance.

While it’s true these programs once benefited from a wave of foreign athletes in the 70s and 80s, that trend eventually faded, only to resurface now, reignited by the controversy surrounding the latest NIL changes.

Both Oklahoma State and Iowa State have just two American-born athletes each this NCAA cross country season. Out of the 21 male runners representing the top three programs, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, and New Mexico,  18 are international, nearly all from Africa, a trend now spreading across several colleges. As Eyestone puts it, “All the races look like the world cross country championships. They’re coming because of NIL.”

The sudden foreign influx of athletes in the American system has now reached the point that the Cross-Country championships are more competitive than the U.S Championships. And, it all started due to the NIL changes, Paul Pilkington, the former Weber State cross country coach says, “The NCAA now allows potential student-athletes and current student-athletes to have agent. The current NIL rules do not allow NIL money to go to foreign athletes in the USA. They can receive it in their home country.”

Schools with larger budgets are paying agents to recruit foreign athletes. After taking their commission, these agents pass the remaining amount on to the athletes. This creates a continuous cycle that persists until the athlete eventually returns to their home country. While Oklahoma and Iowa do not seem to have any issue with this practice, some coaches have come forward to label it as athlete trafficking.

“Athlete Trafficking,” Coaches hit out at the NCAA

As of today, the NCAA has remained utterly silent on the controversial recruitment of foreign athletes, even though some of them are considerably older than a typical American freshman and often fall short academically. Universities claim they are recruiting offshore talent while adhering to NCAA rules, but this practice seriously hampers the progression of American talent. This is further aggravated by the new NCAA roster limits, which are already cutting opportunities for aspiring high school athletes.

“It’s athlete trafficking,” said Rita Gray, track and cross-country coach at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. She further added, “We’re going to look up in 10 years and the talent pool of American runners is going to be drained.” Several coaches across the United States have openly criticised this system. Yet, concrete action remains rare, according to Eyestone, one of the factors why Casey Clinger, his standout athlete, quit her collegiate eligibility midway through the 2024 season due to the presence of African distance runners.

“Casey said the NCAA had better talent than (professional road racing), so why not go pro, get a contract and race guys on the roads professionally that are not as good as the 25-year-old freshman at a university,” the coach expressed. Recently, at the Big 12 cross country championships, the International runners dominated the race, claiming 13 of the top 14 positions, with 12 hailing from Africa, out of which 11 alone are from Kenya.

The group also featured older competitors, ranging from 22 to 25 years old, along with three athletes whose birth details remain undisclosed. When money comes into play, the ethics of the sport begin to erode little by little. With coaches standing on opposing sides, the question remains: will the NCAA take any action? Time will tell.