The short report “” evaluates whether PAC 12 schools are bringing in “hired guns” to make their men’s tennis programs successful. The analysis evaluated rosters published on athletic websites in April 2013.
Only 8 schools in the PAC 12 had men’s programs (ASU, CU, OSU, and WSU did not have men’s programs). Of the 88 players listed on the rosters, 32 players, or 36.4%, were in-state and 17 players, or 19.3%, were out-of-state. In other words, 55.7% of the players were Americans and 44.3% were from other countries.
All schools had at least 1 in-state player. Only UCLA and California players had 50% or more in-state players. Stanford and Washington had the least number of foreign players (3 of 13 and 3 of 11). At least half of the USC, Oregon, Arizona, and Utah players were from other countries.
Clearly, most men’s programs (at least in the PAC 12) look outside their state to find players to build their program. The effectiveness of this tactic might be debatable in situations where programs need to build local fan or alumni support.
For a similar analysis on women’s tennis go to the post “Are Women’s Tennis Coaches Looking for Mercenaries to Fill Their Rosters?”
I apologize for so many comments – but I love the topics you are proposing. It seems to me that the point you are making is not one that college coaches are too concerned about (local players to build local fans)… I wish that was the case.