Universities know how to recruit, admit, certify, and support international athletes on the way into U.S. higher education. What they too often fail to build is a similarly deliberate and protected exit when eligibility ends, enrollment changes, or visa status becomes unstable. John Bol Ajak’s case is painful, but it is not isolated. It reveals a larger truth: if institutions benefit from international athletes, they also owe them a safe transition out of college sport.

MLS is entering a new era. The next wave is not only about global stars choosing America. It’s about American clubs building global infrastructure that produces talent for years. San Diego FC is the clearest case study in the league, and the Right to Dream pipeline is already delivering.

Two All-Star weekends. Back-to-back years. Same message. Anthony Edwards is not just talking. He’s signaling succession in a league that is already global. And that matters because the NBA is the destination and college sport is part of the pipeline that feeds it even if its infrastructure has not caught up yet.