Tennis great Patrick McEnroe urges Congress to cap foreign recruits, protect American student-athletes

Tennis legend Patrick McEnroe took his fight directly to Capitol Hill this week, urging Congress to cap international athletes on college rosters at 20%.

Speaking with OutKick following his testimony before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the former Davis Cup captain made his mission clear: stop taxpayer-funded universities from shutting out American kids and restore their focus on developing young domestic talent.

"Football and basketball are essentially professional now, and universities are under increasing pressure to fund them," McEnroe told OutKick.

"The sports being squeezed are tennis, wrestling and swimming, the Olympic sports that don’t generate revenue." The turning point came when McEnroe turned on the SEC Network to watch a college tennis championship and noticed that only two of the 12 players on the court were American.

An ACC championship match revealed an even worse ratio, with just one American out of 12.

In Division I tennis, international recruits now occupy nearly 70% of roster spots.

"This is collegiate tennis, and we’re losing a pathway of dreams and opportunities for American kids," McEnroe said.

"I think of it as the rungs on a ladder.

If you keep taking away the rungs, the kids will eventually give up." At his academy in New York, McEnroe sees young American athletes grinding every weekend, only to watch collegiate opportunities evaporate as coaches favor older international recruits with professional experience.

"Many of those kids dream of playing professionally, but by 14 or 15, they realize that probably won’t happen," McEnroe explained.

"What they want is the opportunity to play college tennis, and they’re starting to see that dream disappear.

I don’t think that’s right." "That’s why I say I’m not worried about the players who are going to make it," he added.

"They represent roughly 1 percent of the people who play college tennis or other college sports and eventually become professionals.

This is about the masses." CRUZ AND CANTWELL REFUSE TO BEND TO SEC AND BIG TEN CONCERNS IN REVISED COLLEGE ATHLETICS LEGISLATION To fix the system, McEnroe is backing a legislative proposal introduced by Rep.