A new bill introduced in the United States to the House of Representatives, aims to restrict NCAA teams to no more than 20% of their roster being international, and it could destroy the quality of NCAA women's hockey.
On Monday, United States Senator Jon Husted and Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, both Republicans, introduced a bill, seeking to pass legislation to limit international athletes competing in NCAA schools to 20% of a roster.
If passed, the bill, titled the H.R. 10351, Training and Education for American Members in University Sports and Athletics (TEAM USA) Act, would transform NCAA women's hockey from being the best development league in the planet, into an unrecognizable system that could unravel USA Hockey's best development pathway.
“American colleges and universities should first and foremost provide opportunities for American students,” said Walberg in a news release. “College athletics provides a pathway to world-class education and opportunities that last a lifetime. This bill restores balance by protecting roster spots for American student-athletes. America has built the strongest collegiate athletic system in the world, and we should make sure it continues to develop the next generation of American students and American Olympians.”
While the bill aims to "protect" roster spots for sports including NCAA women's hockey, there aren't enough NCAA Division 1 calibre hockey players in the United States to fill the 45 rosters currently competing at the level. Removing international players would significantly weaken the level of play across the United States, including for their own top players.
In 2025-26, there were 665 American women on NCAA Division 1 rosters, while there were 469 international players, representing 41.4% of the NCAA Division 1 women's player pool.
Looking at individual programs, 37 of 45 exceeded the proposed 20% limit for international players, and many of the NCAA's top programs have already committed to hundreds of international players for the coming seasons.
NCAA programs who recruit players from Canada, USA, Czechia, Finland, and beyond, do so to make their teams better. As a byproduct however, it's also helped to surround the USA's best players with the best talent in the world, bolstering the development of American national team members. This season NCAA women's hockey will feature players representing 17 nations.
"As Congress considers the future of NIL and college sports, protecting opportunities for American student-athletes must come first,” said Husted. “American colleges and universities are increasingly giving scholarships and limited roster spots to foreign athletes, and the growth of NIL money only creates more incentive for foreign athletes to cash in on the American system. If the U.S. Congress is being asked to ‘save college sports’ we should save it for American student-athletes.”
From 2025-26, not a single nationally ranked program at year end would meet the new requirements. None of the eight teams who feature less than 20% international players were ranked by USCHO, and only #13 Minnesota State was ranked by USA Hockey. One of the eight programs in compliance, Saint Anselm, will drop from NCAA Division 1 hockey after this season after failing to sustain their program.
Looking at the 2026-27 initial rankings from USA Hockey, none of the top five teams in the nation - Wisconsin, Ohio State, Minnesota, Northeastern, Penn State - would be in compliance. This season, the reigning national champion Wisconsin Badgers' top two recruits are arguably Slovakia's Nela Lopusanova and Canada's Rosalie Tremblay. Two of their top defenders will be Canada's Emma Venusio and Ava Murphy, and one of their top returning scorers up front is Czech Olympian Adela Sapovalivova. But Wisconsin would be one of the least impacted top programs.
Picked in the WCHA preseason coaches poll as the top team ahead of Wisconsin, Ohio State enters as USA Hockey's #2 ranked team. The problem this season for Ohio State however, is that 14 of the 24 players currently listed on the Buckeyes' roster, the equivalent of 58%, are international players. That includes Swedish Olympians Mira Jungaker, Jenna Raunio, and Hilda Svensson, who was the NCAA Co-Rookie of Year alongside Canadian Sara Manness of Clarkson last year. Their roster also includes Finnish Olympian Sanni Vanhanen, Slovakia's Ema Tothova, and Canadian standouts like Jocelyn Amos, Hayley McDonald, and Maxine Cimeroni.
Minnesota's roster features players from Canada, Finland, Hungary, and Czechia, complementing their American athletes. Penn State has a lineup including Canadian, Swedish, and Italian born players, while Northeastern's roster features players from Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, and Czechia.
Last season, eight NCAA women's hockey programs featured international players representing 60% or more of their roster. Six of those exceeded 70%, and one, Mercyhurst, sat just over 85% coming from outside the United States.
While the bill would open hundreds of roster spots for international players, it would also devastate the competitive level of play, weakening the development potential for the top American players, while strengthening leagues globally.
Perhaps the biggest benefactor of a bill of this magnitude, would be Canada's women's hockey system. A move of this magnitude would send hundreds of Canada's top women's hockey players back north of the border where they would significantly strengthen the U SPORTS system whose top teams are already better than a large chunk of NCAA teams. It would also open the door for Canadian universities to take on more international hockey players further building upon Canada's strength. Some of those international players looking to attend Canadian universities could also, ironically enough, come from the United States as players may look to follow the best development pathway, which should the bill pass, may soon not be the NCAA.
For years, the NCAA has been USA Hockey's best asset when it comes to winning World Championship and Olympic medals. Diluting the NCAA's talent pool by barring more than 20% of the sport's athletes, including many of the NCAA's best, would provide weaker competition for American women and significantly reduced development opportunities. While the bill "Aims to strengthen the American Olympic development pipeline," in women's hockey, it would almost certainly do the opposite, and could cause many current NCAA Division 1 women's hockey programs to cease operations altogether, or downgrade themselves to a less costly level of competition.
