International Student-Athlete Background Searches: Amateur or Pro?

Do you really know if your international student-athletes are amateurs under NCAA rules? This issue is receiving heightened scrutiny, in part due to the publicity generated after some institutions had to vacate regular season and NCAA Championship contests and surrender awards due to the participation of one or more ineligible international student-athletes in several different sports. Many colleges and universities have already made investigating the amateurism backgrounds of international student-athletes a high priority. Presently, it is each institution's responsibility to certify the eligibility of international prospective student-athletes. This can result in different conclusions by different schools regarding the eligibility status of the same foreign athlete. Thus, one institution may decide not to recruit an athlete based on potential or actual NCAA issues identified through its research, while another school elects to certify the same athlete as eligible.  Learn more.

The Non-Traditional Booster

How does an "outsider" of an institution's athletics program become a representative of athletics interest (a.k.a. booster) under NCAA rules? How does a college or university monitor these individuals? Beware: The identification of boosters may not be as easy as it used to be. Recent decisions by the NCAA Committee on Infractions (the "Committee") have surprised some observers by determining that various individuals with close ties to a prospective student-athlete have evolved into a booster of that institution based primarily on their interaction with the institution's coaches.  Learn more.