What Is Going On In College Tennis?

There is so much happening on the College Tennis Front these days – some good, some not so good – that I wanted to do a quick update for those of you who are, like me, on the brink of getting your junior player ready for this next step. Please feel free to discuss any or all of the following points in the Comments section.

• The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) recently published its pre-season individual ranking list for both men and women (see below) as well as its ranking list for incoming freshmen. Just looking at the names on the men’s list, 26 of the top 50 (those in bold type below, 52%) are from outside the US. For the freshmen men, 8 out of 10 (80%) are foreign. Yet, on the women’s side, only 14 out of the top 50 (28%) are foreign while 3 out of the top 10 (30%) freshmen women are from outside the States. Why are the women’s coaches doing so much better at attracting top American players?
• When you consider the fact that fully-funded Division I universities only have 4 1/2 scholarships to award on the men’s side and 8 on the women’s, it makes you think twice about why we in the US are willing to spend well into the 6 figures to help our juniors develop their tennis games when the chance of them getting any type of college scholarship – or a spot in the lineup – is so slim. Yes, tennis has become a global sport – and college tennis has become global as well – and that’s a great thing, in my opinion. But, what are the ramifications of that globalization? I’ve posed this question before, but does the NCAA need to limit the number of foreign scholarships and should USTA and ITA take a strong leadership role in bringing this about? The USTA (and ITA to some extent) have said limiting foreign scholarships would open up universities to a slew of discrimination lawsuits, but there is no evidence to back up that assumption. In fact, effective August 2012, the National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) limits the number of foreign players on any sport team to 25% of the total roster (2 for tennis). At the moment, only 25% can be on scholarship but there is NO limit on the number of students who can pay their own way and be on the team. Why couldn’t the NCAA adopt a similar rule?
• While the ITA approved no-ad scoring and clinch-clinch for the 2014-2015 season, NCAA has decided to table the discussion on the format for its 2015 National Championships. Colette Lewis of Zootennis.com spoke with the ITA’s David Benjamin who told her that the ITA Operating Committee will convene soon and will likely make a decision concerning scoring for the Fall events by early next week. Historically, the college coaches have adopted whatever format would be used at the National Championships during the Spring dual-match season. If the NCAA decides to stick with traditional scoring for now, it will be interesting to see if the ITA and the coaches themselves follow suit. As of publication, there is still no additional information on either the NCAA or ITA website regarding yesterday’s decision.
• I had a chance to speak with several college coaches while I was at the Open. Though they may have differing opinions when it comes to no-ad scoring, I didn’t find a single coach who felt that using a clinch-clinch format is in the best interest of their players or their team. Luckily, ITA allows the coaches to choose whether or not to play no-ad or clinch-clinch in dual matches. As long as both coaches agree before the match begins, they can decide to play out all singles and doubles matches even after one team secures the overall match win. I suspect we’ll see all (or at least most) teams playing to completion despite the ITA ruling.

Men’s rankings