Ryan Kirk, Tony Weaver examine the globalization of U.S. men’s college soccer

While conducting research for their co-authored paper published in Soccer & Society, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to soccer, Associate Professors Ryan Kirk and Tony Weaver collected roster data for 120,000 players and distributed a survey to nearly 1,400 coaches examining the reasons for increased internationalization in U.S. men’s college soccer programs.

Their findings were published in January under the headline, “Footballers, migrants and scholars: the globalization of U.S. men’s college soccer.”

Kirk, a professor in the Department of History and Geography, and Weaver, chair of the Department of Sport Management, began their research with three primary objectives.

First, the professors wanted to provide a comprehensive analysis of the spatial and temporal trends of international players in all of U.S. men’s college soccer since 1990. Secondly, they sought to analyze the primary factors explaining the internationalization trend. Finally, they wanted to contextualize the case study of college soccer migration within the broader literature of both global player migration and the maturing U.S. soccer landscape.

Their paper’s abstract reads: “While immigrants have driven much of the 150-year history of college soccer, there has been an unprecedented foreign influx in the twenty-first century. We quantify the modern internationalization of men’s college soccer and assess factors driving this change via analysis of rosters from 1,317 teams and a survey of coaches’ perceptions of foreign players and international recruitment.”

According to their estimations, 7,600 players from 170 different countries played men’s college soccer in 2016, a 120 percent increase since 2000. Perceived growth drivers include expanding international recruiting by coaches, growing international awareness of college soccer as an option, a burgeoning industry of recruiting agencies, and technological globalization.

Kirk also outlined several key findings on his Soccer Geography blog:

• There is an average of 6.9 players with international hometowns per team. NAIA has the highest percentage (35 percent), followed by NCAA D2 (31 percent) and NCAA D1 (24 percent).
• International players are relatively over-represented in Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions, along with various mid-continent states. Florida has the highest percentage of international players (42 percent of all roster spots).
• Foreign players are largely underrepresented on the West Coast. Washington has the lowest percentage of international players (2 percent).

The authors concluded that the influence of international recruiting agencies in attracting talent and the increasing awareness of U.S. college soccer as an option for international players are the most under-analyzed considerations in the modern evolution of men’s college soccer.

Soccer & Society

Soccer & Society, published by Taylor & Francis, is the first international journal devoted to the world’s most popular game. It covers all aspects of soccer globally from anthropological, cultural, economic, historical, political and sociological perspectives.