Foreign tennis players could hurt college quarterbacks' payday. Here's why
Foreign tennis players are enjoying a moment on Capitol Hill.
There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.
Slashed NCAA tennis programs, packed with international athletes, emerged as a prop for U.S. senators trying to pass federal legislation to regulate college sports.
A bill co-written by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) would enforce a cap on how much universities could spend on athlete compensation. In other words, the federal government would cap the earning potential of thousands of American college athletes. This would be different from pro leagues, where salary caps are established through collective bargaining.
Cantwell, while stumping for the bill, sounded willing to take money out of the pockets of some college athletes if it means protecting opportunities on university campuses for tennis players. What she didn’t mention: Many of the affected college tennis players are citizens of other countries.
“We cannot have a pay-for-play system and then continue to cut this many women and Olympic athletes in various programs,” Cantwell said during a hearing on the bill.
Specifically, Cantwell referenced Arkansas and Saint Louis targeting its men’s and women’s tennis programs for cuts. Arkansas reversed course at the 11th hour and maintained its programs after a fundraising surge, but Saint Louis dropped the ax. It marks the first time SLU cut a sports program in two decades.
Look, I’m not celebrating cutting any college sports team. I feel for the affected athletes.
But, I wonder whether Cantwell researched the rosters of the teams she referenced or considered the fairness of Congress capping how much Washington or Texas could pay its football or basketball players, who come from places like Seattle, Austin, Dallas and lands in between, all in the name of a Frenchman getting to play college tennis in the Midwest.
In SLU’s final men’s tennis match before it discontinued the program, the Billikens started a singles lineup featuring five international players and one American.
Billikens on the courts that day came from places like Australia, Mexico, France, Costa Rica and Mauritius Island, which is located somewhere in the Indian Ocean. (I admit I had to look that one up.)
Between its men’s and women’s teams, the final season of SLU tennis featured 12 foreigners and seven Americans, including just two players from the St. Louis area.
Arkansas saves tennis programs. That’s good for international athletes
Arkansas saving its women’s tennis program meant preserving a team that rostered seven Europeans and four Americans last season. The Razorbacks men’s roster featured just two Americans.
I’m not down on overseas athletes. International students help provide campus diversity, and a school cutting a sports team stinks for the athletes, no matter where they call home.
I’m just struggling with the idea Arkansas football players from Little Rock or Pine Bluff or Springdale should have their earning potential capped by the U.S. government, while senators fight to protect collegiate opportunities for a Russian or Estonian tennis player.
It’s true hundreds of programs, including many women’s and Olympic sports teams, got cut in recent years. The reasons for the cuts are varied and not exclusively tied to pay-for-play costs.
Arkansas athletics operated at an $ 11.8 million surplus in the 2025 fiscal year, the last year before revenue-sharing with athletes kicked in. That year, its tennis programs accounted for just $ 2.35 million of Arkansas’ more than $ 184 million in total athletics operating expenses. In other words, funding tennis is a drop in the bucket. It’s peanuts. Cutting tennis would’ve saved Arkansas enough money to pay for about one top football or basketball player.
The Cantwell-Cruz bill would institute scholarship and program protections for women’s and Olympic sports — if schools opt into a media rights-pooling plan that many believe would increase revenue.
But, this bill isn’t the only avenue to preserve NCAA women’s and Olympic sports teams.
For instance, Congress could codify the NCAA bylaw that requires Division I schools to compete in at least 14 sports, a number that increases to 16 sports if the school competes in the FBS. When paired with Title IX, codifying that NCAA bylaw would protect a base level of opportunities for women’s athletes.
Ted Cruz: Cutting teams hurts U.S. preparation for Olympics
While Cantwell gets her hackles up about Saint Louis cutting tennis teams packed with international players, Cruz worries about how the U.S. will fare in the Olympics if cuts continue.
“One of the really important parts of this bill is protecting women’s sports and Olympic sports and non-revenue sports,” Cruz said. “One of the tragedies we’re seeing right now under the status quo is” schools cutting sports teams.
“If we don’t act, we’re going to continue to see devastation,” Cruz added. “And I, for one, don’t want to see an Olympics where every gold medal goes to Russia and China, and Americans are not able to compete because we’ve devastated the preparation of our Olympic athletes.”
To Cruz’s point, College Sports Inc. is indeed the engine behind Team USA, particularly in the Summer Games. NCAA opportunities also contribute to the Olympics pursuits of numerous athletes from other countries.
These senators ought to ask themselves whether America’s Olympic dream should be tied so heavily to SLU’s support for tennis or Cal Poly’s support for swimming or Cleveland State’s support for wrestling.
The U.S. government does not fund Team USA. It’s privately funded.
Russia and China don’t pin their Olympic hopes to the collegiate system. Unlike in the U.S., those governments heavily invest in their nation’s Olympics pursuits.
NCAA tennis cuts shouldn’t be a government prop to cap athlete earnings
This time last year, Louisiana-Monroe dropped women’s tennis.
ULM’s roster that final season: Eight foreigners (including one player from China). Zero American-born players. The players pronounced their names in an audio guide accompanying ULM’s online roster.
Illinois State cut its men’s tennis team after this season. Its final roster? Seven foreigners, plus one guy from Indiana.
How about the final North Dakota women’s tennis roster? Eight foreigners. No American players.
You get the idea.
I’m not in favor of a mass-cutting of college teams, and one could point to benefits of NCAA opportunities for international athletes.
But, when protecting NCAA tennis teams packed with foreigners means signing into federal law a compensation cap that would affect thousands of American college athletes, you’ve lost me.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football player salaries under attack … by NCAA tennis teams?
