An investigation lasting seven months by a San Antonio television station has reportedly discovered alleged immigration fraud possibly involving Australian punters and kickers who have played in the college football ranks over the last decade.
Fox 29 (San Antonio) investigated allegations that suggested some players from Australia who moved to the U.S. to play college football were potentially ineligible to receive a college scholarship or a student visa, a likely violation of NCAA rules.
The network quoted a football coach who first learned about the alleged issue when a player he previously recruited from Australia was re-represented as a four-year eligible freshman by the Australian company Prokick.
Prokick is a group that specializes in preparing punters and kickers to move overseas to play college football in the U.S. and then try to earn a place in the NFL.
“He had started working with Prokick, and they were these coaches that I was talking to who were under the impression that he had four years to play,” the anonymous coach told Fox 29.
The coach added that he was told the player “had never been to college and I said, that’s not what I discovered when I was recruiting him. He had three years to play.”
Fox 29 says it asked IFW International chairman Ken Gamble to help in verifying academic records and other documentation it obtained during its investigation.
Gamble said that, in addition to breaking NCAA regulations, the fabrication of academic documents could also be considered fraud.
“These students that we’ve investigated have attended university full-time, and we don’t believe that it was disclosed,” he said.
“If there has been a misrepresentation of their educational standards, then this is not only a violation of the NCAA eligibility rules, but it’s also fraud in their visa documents.”
Not all punters who came to the U.S. from Australia to play football are under scrutiny.
“The injustice is, there are players that are doing it the right way,” the coach said, “Australian and international players, American players that are doing it the right way, that have legit transcripts.”
Prokick did not respond to the Fox 29 report in time for publication.
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