With annual foreign tours now possible, higher education institutions have an opportunity to reimagine what international engagement can mean for college athletics.

March Madness is not just a billion dollar basketball tournament. March Madness showcases how higher education and sport now operate together in a global marketplace. I traced the infrastructures and pathways producing this moment and asked the harder questions.

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.