By Mark Pszonak
In what has become a popular trend, many of the top college football programs in the country currently have a punter from Australia on their roster. This all began to simmer back in 2007 with the formation of ProKick Australia, which has been teaching Australians how to kick an American football in hopes of receiving a college scholarship in the United States.
And while it began slowly, by 2024, it has almost become the norm for a college program to have an Australia punter on their roster. This included Notre Dame, Georgia, Miami-Florida, Iowa, West Virginia and TCU.
However, a new report by Yami Virgin of Fox San Antonio raises serious doubts regarding the process that is getting some of these Australian kickers into the United States. (Read full article here).
“But as our exclusive seven-month investigation into troubling allegations of doctored documents and ineligible players taking football scholarships from American and Australian players suggests there may also be immigration fraud being committed,” said Virgin.
The investigation involved the help of Ken Gamble, Chairman of IFW Global, which is a Sydney, Australia based company that conducts fraud investigations. He believes that there are eligibility concerns regarding some of these players.
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“These students that we’ve investigated have attended university full-time, and we don’t believe that it was disclosed. 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,” said Gamble.
It will be interesting to see if this investigation leads to bigger things but considering the amount of Australian punters currently playing college football in the United States, it is definitely an issue worth keeping an eye on in the coming weeks and months.
