The NCAA's Global Growth
One in ten women’s college basketball players is from outside the U.S.
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Women’s college basketball is increasingly an international game.
The number of NCAA players who hail from outside the United States increased by nearly 10 percent from last season, according to an analysis of team rosters by Her Hoop Stats.
More than 1,200 players across all three NCAA divisions list a non-U.S. hometown on their team roster, meaning international players make up close to one in every 10 women’s college basketball athletes. The vast majority of those compete in Division I, and their numbers are growing at an even faster pace: the number of non-U.S. players at the highest level grew by 12 percent compared to last season.
The top three countries producing NCAA players are the same as last season: Spain, Canada and Australia, all of whom increased the number of players on college rosters. Spain currently accounts for at least 216 college players, or about one in six from outside the U.S. The number of Australians, which dropped by 18 percent last season, has bounced back slightly, although it still has not reached its previous high during the 2022-23 season. Aussies can be found on more than 100 college teams; Davidson has five of them.
Other countries saw much larger percentage gains from last season, including Turkey, which more than doubled its share of NCAA players to 21, along with Serbia, Portugal and Finland. Mali and the Dominican Republic hit double-digits for the first time this season. But the number of countries represented on NCAA rosters has remained nearly the same for the past three seasons; this season there are 87, up one from 86 the previous two.
The number of African players has steadily increased over the past few seasons, too. While no African nation approaches the countries producing the most NCAA players, Nigeria (26), Senegal (16), Mali (12) and Mozambique (9) all have more players in college basketball than they did in either the previous two seasons. In all, there are at least 86 players listing African hometowns on NCAA rosters this season, a 72 percent increase over just two seasons ago.
International players represent at least a quarter of all players in seven Division I conferences this season, including the West Coast Conference, Atlantic 10 and Conference USA. By contrast, the Big 12 has one of the lowest percentages of non-U.S. players of any large conference, around 12 percent.
Of the 929 NCAA teams across all three divisions this season, 433 have at least one international player, down just slightly from a season ago. Five NCAA teams have at least 10 international players on their rosters this season, not counting Simon Fraser, which is in British Columbia and is mostly a Canadian team. South Florida, which has cultivated international players for years, and San Francisco, which has had at least 10 non-U.S. players in each of the past three seasons, lead the way, but others include Wagner, Washington State and Texas-El Paso.
Some appear to have made major efforts to attract international players. Saint Peter’s has gone from one international player during the 2022-23 season to eight this year. Other smaller schools such as Boston University and Monmouth have made similar gains, as has Kentucky, which has gone from one to five players, including Virginia Tech transfer Georgia Amoore. Xavier went from two to eight internationals in the same period.
There are several factors that could be influencing the rise in international players, including broader exposure of the sport around the world via broadcasts and games played in non-U.S. locations, but there’s another one worth considering: it’s possible that fewer Americans are playing basketball.
The number of roster positions over the past three seasons hasn’t changed much, although there’s a dip this season among Division III players (possibly due to the closure of some schools). If there are more international players appearing on college rosters, it could be that non-U.S. players are more willing to make that move and can secure a position. It also could be true that they are competing with fewer Americans. Although basketball remains the fourth most-popular sport for high school girls, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, about 6,000 fewer of them played it in 2023-24 than the previous season. The vast majority of high school basketball players don’t go on to play on NCAA teams, of course, but other sports are seeing increased participation.
The data comes from the Sports Roster Data Project at the University of Maryland, which compiles information from more than 900 college and university websites through web scraping and manual efforts.
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