Earlier today, ITA CEO David Mullins put out a statement on the state of college athletics and the professionalization of NCAA tennis. Read the full statement here.
“At what point does college athletics become professional sports played by individuals who happen to attend college?,” Mullins asks.
In a fall season that has seen its top four men’s players not participate and an ATP top 150 player commit and decommit to a school pushing every boundary, questions about the stability of college have grown increasingly loud.
Many in the tennis space such as ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe are vocal on the number of international players filling college tennis rosters. McEnroe argues that more than 60% of college tennis players are internationals, and a cap should be in place to allow for more opportunities for American juniors.
Mullins argues that arbitrarily capping international players “risks treating the symptom rather than the underlying problem.” The issue he seeks to address is the flow of experienced professionals into the game — the 21, 22 and 23-year-olds that have played for years on tour and will only play a year or two in the college game.
“The question is how college athletics should account for extensive professional experience, regardless of where an athlete was born,” Mullins writes.
He argues that in a college athletics world driven by the revenue sports, college tennis needs to do a better job of marketing itself, standing out on campus and “connecting itself more deeply with the broader tennis industry.” It cannot be a passive player in the changing college sports world.
His broad solution calls on collaboration with the NCAA, USTA and universities.
“College sports organizations, universities and national governing bodies should strengthen pathways for American juniors, examine eligibility rules surrounding extensive professional experience, create incentives for developmental opportunities and ensure that college athletics remains meaningfully connected to education. The ITA is actively engaged in these discussions and has a role in shaping them, but the NCAA ultimately determines its own eligibility standards.”
“College tennis can provide an elite pathway to professional tennis, welcome outstanding international athletes, and expand opportunities for American players, all while remaining rooted in education and the campus experience…”
“Those objectives are not mutually exclusive, but achieving them requires something increasingly rare in college athletics: restraint. Not every rule should be designed solely to produce the highest possible level of competition. Not every decision should be driven exclusively by winning. And not every feature of professional sports should automatically migrate into college athletics simply because the legal environment allows it.”
“The professionalization of college sports is not going away. The challenge now is ensuring that, somewhere along the way, we don’t professionalize the college out of college athletics.”
