NCAA ban on foreign athletes starting Season 96 stays

MANILA, Philippines–The ban of foreign student-athletes in the NCAA, which is set to take effect in Season 96, is staying.

NCAA Management Committee chairman Fr. Vic Calvo of Letran said on Tuesday that there are no changes to the league’s decision to prohibit foreigners from suiting up across all sports.

“As of the moment, majority of the NCAA schools agree that the presence of imports brings more negative effects,” said Calvo during the PSA Forum webinar.

“We realized that the presence of players foreign players have done more harm than good [in] basketball,” he added.

For the past decade, foreign athletes have dominated in the NCAA, especially in basketball. Two years ago, the policy board approved the ban in an effort to make the playing field “almost equal,” then-ManCom chair Frank Gusi was quoted as saying.

In the same interview, former chairman Peter Cayco said that while they’re grateful for the foreigners’ contributions to the development of local players, the league’s “majority supports the idea of having All-Filipinos.”

“Don’t get us wrong, we’d like to thank the foreign players for being able to train and teach our Filipino guys how to play against bigger and heftier players, we thank them for that,” Cayco said.

Calvo, though, said that there’s always a possibility of the rule being overturned in the future.

“The rule in the NCAA is not dead. It’s dynamic. Anything can happen, depending on the policy board. If there’s a policy board that really wants imports, they can sponsor a resolution then propose it.”

“We can put it to a vote, it depends on the association. That’s how it is in the NCAA. It’s democratic.”

NCAA is hosting a shortened Season 96 next year due to the COVID-19 crisis with only mandatory sports basketball, volleyball, swimming and athletics in its initial calendar.