Time to rethink UAAP imports?

The NCAA took the giant step of banning foreign students to play basketball two seasons back and while the debate continues on whether it was a positive move or not, the UAAP now faces a similar situation where the recruitment of imports is being questioned by some quarters because of their “professional” nature.

There are pros and cons in the discussion of retaining or prohibiting foreign student athletes. Why discriminate against foreigners when Filipinos are allowed to play in schools abroad like Japeth Aguilar at Western Kentucky and Kobe Paras at Creighton? Is globalization not a trend in sports with schools opening their doors to foreigners? Don’t foreign athletes raise the level of competition in school leagues so that locals are more prepared to represent the country in international events or turn pro?

In the NCAA, foreigners became so dominant that in 2016, four of the players in the Mythical Five were imports. Schools like Letran and San Sebastian refused to go the way of others in recruiting imports and stuck with local players in a defiant stand to take the high road. NCAA imports like Sam Ekwe, Sudan Daniel, Ola Adeogun, Donald Tankoua, Prince Eze, Bright Akhuetie and Allwell Oraeme made a name for themselves as did UAAP counterparts like Ben Mbala, Karim Abdul, Papi Sarr, Prinze Orizu and Charles Mammie. A few of them stayed in Manila after their playing days and some became import recruiters for schools.

This season, only UE is playing without an import among the eight UAAP schools and the Red Warriors finished the elims with three wins. The imports are Ateneo’s Ange Kouame of Ivory Coast, La Salle’s Bright Nwankwo of Nigeria, NU’s Omar John of Senegal, UP’s Malick Diouf of Senegal, FEU’s Pat Tchuente of Nigeria, UST’s Adama Faye of Senegal and Adamson’s Lenda Douenga of Congo.

The NCAA argued that big money is being paid to agents for bringing in high-caliber foreigners to primarily play basketball and on the side, go to school. It’s a fact that imports are peddled from school to school as agents look for the higher bidder. That in itself is a major anomaly in college sports. Some imports play such a dominant role in their teams that locals are relegated to a back seat, stunting their growth, in particular centers and power forwards. Another argument is the scholarship for a foreign student athlete could go to a local instead, bringing up the element of deprivation. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out how many foreign student athletes actually graduate from school?

The race to the UAAP championship has become a competition of drafting the best import. Would UP have won the title without Diouf? Would Ateneo have won its titles without Kouame? Would La Salle have won the 2016 championship without Mbala? Landing the best import is a professional undertaking and sends the wrong signal to local players who are made to think the UAAP is more of a commercial than a university league. Is it time to rethink the UAAP policy on imports?