More International Players, But Fewer Aussies

NCAA rosters have players from 86 countries, including more Africans than ever

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Women’s college basketball teams have a slightly bigger European and African presence this season but fewer players from Australia, according to a Her Hoop Stats analysis of roster data.

A year ago I took a look at international players in college basketball, using data compiled from the rosters of every NCAA team. Having that data gives this year’s analysis some additional context, a way to compare the changes among athletes who travel to the U.S. to play college basketball.

One of every 12 people playing NCAA women’s college basketball hails from outside the United States. That group includes athletes such as Nika Mühl of UConn and her sister, Hana, who plays at Ball State, both from Croatia, along with Frida Formann of Denmark (Colorado), Kamilla Cardoso of Brazil (South Carolina) and Charlisse Leger-Walker of New Zealand (Washington State). Of more than 1,100 international players listed on rosters this season, more than 825 play for Division I teams.

The overall number has steadily increased since the 2020-21 season, when the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the number of international players on NCAA rosters. This season’s figure is 27 percent higher than three years ago.

The top three sources of international players - Spain, Canada and Australia - remained unchanged from a season ago, but while the first two have more players on NCAA rosters this season, there are 18 percent fewer Aussies than the previous season. For a country that accounts for more than one in 10 international players, that’s not a small change. A year ago, Australia had more players than Canada on college teams; the reverse is true now.

That’s not to say that there aren’t Australians playing prominent roles in women’s college basketball. Georgia Amoore of Virginia Tech has become one of the top guards in the nation, for example.

The drop in Australian players is interesting because even during the pandemic the number of players from Down Under stayed relatively constant at around 160 a year. It’s not clear why there are only 136 Aussie players on NCAA rosters this season, but 42 teams that had at least one Australian a year ago do not this season. The expiration of additional years of eligibility thanks to the pandemic seems like a reasonable factor, but the same pattern doesn’t seem to hold for Spain and Canada.

The number of Spanish players rose overall by nearly 16 percent, and Spain now accounts for the largest contingent of Division I players of any country with 142. More than 130 NCAA teams have a Spanish player on the roster, and four have enough to field a starting five entirely from Spain.

The uptick in African players this season comes from countries with a track record of producing NCAA players, such as Nigeria, but also because more nations are sending players for the first time in recent years. Nigeria’s 23 NCAA players are its most in the past four years, as are Mali’s nine and Mozambique’s eight. And Gabon, Niger and Zimbabwe all have players on college rosters for the first time since at least 2020.

Setting aside Simon Fraser University, which though located in British Columbia is an NCAA member (and has a team composed mostly of Canadians), South Florida has the most international players on its roster this season of any NCAA team. That should come as little surprise to those familiar with USF’s program under Coach Jose Fernandez, who has consistently brought players from outside the U.S. to Tampa. This season’s Bulls roster has 12 international players, the most in the past four years.

USF isn’t alone; more than 50 other Division I teams have at least five international players on their rosters, including Washington State, Buffalo, California, Middle Tennessee and Columbia. Another 11 Division II schools do, too.

In many cases this means multiple players from the same country on a single team. Rhode Island has had at least five players from France for the past four seasons, for example. But for other teams, this season means having international players when in recent years they had none. Sixteen Division I teams, including Notre Dame, Arkansas and Mississippi Valley State, had zero international players for the past three seasons, but have at least one this year.

The data comes from the Sports Roster Data Project at the University of Maryland, which compiles information from more than 900 college and university web sites. While all NCAA teams display roster information, schools vary in what details they provide, use abbreviations and otherwise have inconsistent spellings of hometowns, high schools and previous colleges. We’re still working to standardize this data and to work on previous years so that we can compare changes over time. Learn more about that process (and get the data) here.

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