College Sports in Countries Other Than the U.S.
We’ve gone over what the collegiate sports landscape looks like in the U.S. - for the most part, it's quite competitive. However, what about University systems everywhere else? Well, what you’ll find is there are major differences between the U.S. and the rest of the world. These have to do with a variety of factors such as public interest, endowment in collegiate athletes, and university tuitions just to name a few. Here we’re going to explore just how different things are all around the world and what decisions you could make as a result of them.
Asia
With the greatest population density outside of the U.S., this is the first place we’d have to look when it comes to intercollegiate activities. For this part of the world, we split it into China and Japan, given they both have college athletics, however as you will see they’re vastly different from the norm in the west.
The Chinese intercollegiate sports system is fairly young, having started in the late 20th century. There’s actually no integrated league for intercollegiate sports yet, while there are many for individual sports. To put it simpler, the whole collection of intercollegiate sports is organized by the Chinese Education Bureau and General Administration of Sports with slight changes made by the individual sports leagues. The recruiting process can be divided into 3 different categories:
General athletic recruiting
High-level athletes recruiting
Highest level of athlete recruiting
Here are some things to keep in mind before a three-way comparison of the recruiting process:
The Chinese national entrance exam has several cutoff lines placed to evaluate which students can get to which schools - if you’ve reached a certain cutoff line for a certain school you will most likely be admissible, if you’re below it then there’s no way you will be accepted.
Chinese sports have national levels (Elite, I , II, and III) that gauge the ability of an athlete.: Elite players are world-class athletes, Level I are nationally ranked athletes, Level II are the top athletes of a province, Level III are top athletes in the city
Athletes in China tend to pursue occupations related to the sport that they played before, and studied as a result, in university. This applies mostly to General athletic recruiting, whereas for high level recruiting they can pursue other majors and occupations, and for the highest level they can only pursue sports-related majors but not the same as the one they were recruited for.
In China, student athletes are called “athletic specialists” who want to go to college. People usually have to make a decision between athletics or academics since there isn’t enough support or a structured system to help them succeed in both areas at the same time. Due to the large amount of grade deflation on the national exam and the high bars set to get into schools, student athletes in China are often considered people who get in through the back door and are typically not well respected.
Japan is in a similar position. Before 2018, intercollegiate athletic competitions were supervised by the JAAF (Japan Association of Athletic Federation) and mostly organized like club college sports in the U.S. Coaches and athletics departments have no collaboration with university lecturers which gives the student athletes tons of pressure to be excellent in both areas. On March 1st, 2019, Japan decided to imitate the NCAA and started its own intercollegiate sports organization called UNIVAS (Japan Association for University Athletics and Sport). There are currently 222 institutions joined with 34 affiliated organizations and offering 30 different sports. They’ve just hosted their first UNIVAS cup and are looking to grow rapidly.
In general, it is important to note that for Asian countries, a lot of the countrywide associations just got started within the last few decades and are eager to change the status quo of absolute separation between academics and sports. By building a more complete support system from the earlier stage, they’ll be able to assist the growth of student athletes and disrupt the traditional bias against them.
Europe
Similar to Asia, European countries, unfortunately, don’t have any major intercollegiate sports organizations that could be likened to those in the U.S. The EUSA or European University Sports Association exists, however, this is comparable to the competitive level of intramural or in some cases club sports for U.S. institutions. The ONE country that has actually begun to develop a similar type of infrastructure however is the UK with BUCS.
Originally, British collegiate sports actually began early in the 20th century - as early as 1919 with the advent of University College Sport (UCS) and over the next 89 years the face of British intercollegiate sports would change several times, with the addition of British Universities Sports Association (BUSA), but the overall vision remained the same. In 2008 a merger between UCS and BUSA formed BUCS or the British Universities & Colleges Sports organization, now the governing body.
In our last post, we showed how there are significant aspects of the student athlete journey when it comes to recruiting and academics in the U.S. Yet the BUCS doesn’t seemingly have the same philosophy. Rather, they choose to make sports accessible to all students - similar to intramural sports in the U.S. There is no outright divisional or even conference structure that is worth taking into account when it comes to competition between schools. Also, not all sports are sanctioned at the national competition level, which shows the initiative to create a national platform for sports. but not yet on par with the U.S. Ultimately, there are no distinct requirements or regulations for recruitment or academics when it comes to competitive sport play, as all students in Great Britain are judged solely on their academic merits alone.
Canada
Other rivals to the NCAA lie in Canada, with the existence of two sports governing bodies known as U Sports and the Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association (CCAA). U Sports is the Canadian University sports system while the CCAA is the intercollegiate sports system. Both of these organizations are very similar to BUCS in the UK where they play host to several sports and hold competitions but are not at the highest athletic level. There was much deliberation in the early 1970s regarding the formation of a college sports organization and the CCAA was officially recognized in 1974. U Sports has been around for much longer, however, beginning in 1906 under the mantra “CIAU Central”, where its only member universities were from Quebec and Ontario. Ultimately it underwent several name changes but finally, in 2016, it shifted to the name U Sports in order to further the vision of advancing Canadian collegiate athletics.
These two organizations are quite similar to the European systems presented above, where they don’t foster as many of the sports that the U.S. system does on a national level. This also means that they’re quite similar with the lack of conference or divisional substructure. Due to that similar climate, there are also not many restrictions or regulations when it comes to recruiting, as (once again) the most important factors are solely reliant on a students academic prowess in order to enter an institution and then participate in sports.
FISU
Ultimately the “end all be all” organization that oversees college sports on the worldwide stage is FISU, better known as the International University Sports Federation. The seeds for this federation were sewn in the United States with the introduction of the NCAA in 1905, which gradually led to the emergence of inter-university sports. A little over a decade later, the International Confederation of Students was established in 1919 which paved the way for the first World University Olympics in 1927, and this organization we know today.
FISU offers competition in summer and winter events for a combined total of 50+ sports. It’s in fact so notable that it has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee since 1961. As a result, every other summer and winter season, similar to that of the two Olympic events hosted every 4 years, the World University Olympics are hosted (also known as the Universiade), where the world’s top athletes in University outside the NCAA compete against each other. There is also the annual World University Championships, which are similar to national competitions of sport, except once again on the international stage.
They’ve also outlined a plan that by 2027 would advance the agenda of high-level competition by introducing focus into areas involving the actual sports events, collaboration with other organizations, and resources for the student athletes. Ultimately this organization is leading the charge when it comes to University sports abroad, as there are several member nations that collaborate with it on the grand scale, but for some sports, it is still a far cry from the high level experienced in the U.S.
FISU: https://www.fisu.net/
Why Choose the US?
In any case, the rest of the college sports landscape elsewhere looks very similar to these “major” organizations we’ve just covered - none can really compare to the arrangement in the U.S., at best they are comparable to club teams. This is not a knock on the ability of other countries to develop similar systems, rather just an observation on the lack of similar infrastructure, due to the highly placed importance on academics above all. There is also a general stigma around student lifestyle in other countries, one that doesn’t necessarily glorify them as much as they do in the states. As a result, there are also not as many resources to help student athletes in the classroom or for career discovering opportunities, and not as much willingness from faculty to support the student athlete lifestyle. This is in part due to cultural teachings throughout several generations, which value the relationship between work ethic and education more so than in athletics.
So now that you know what the rest of the world has to offer for college sports, the choice to make couldn’t be more clear. Not only will there be more doors of opportunity opened for you, especially if you’re an international student athlete, but you’ll also get to compete with far more people on the same level as you. If you’re devoted to your craft and wish to study hard at a great institution while also having the chance to compete at one of the highest levels: you need to come to the U.S.
It’s that simple.
Note: This merely reflects our opinion based on the opportunity for personal betterment through sport and education
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