The NIL era has changed a lot in the sports landscape, and volleyball is no exception. As in many sports a decade ago, the best place to make money was overseas in international leagues. The NIL era of college sports has changed that. There are many colleges that can be competitive in pay and recruit and bring some of the top up-and-coming players from overseas.
We've seen a surge of international talent make their way onto college rosters. There have been three in the last week that have committed to Big Ten teams. Nebraska added 6'5" opposite Virginia Adriano from Italy, Oregon added 6'3" Iva Šućurović from Serbia, and just the other day, Illinois recruited Lara Žigić from Serbia to their roster.
In today's edition of European signings, Illinois has signed Serbian libero Lara Žigić 🇷🇸
— Avid (@AvidVolley) May 10, 2025
Žigić competed in the Serbian league this past year and has represented Serbia's youth national teams.
📸: studbudusa pic.twitter.com/F03ADRZ4cI
The Big Ten has added many international volleyball stars, is Wisconsin next?
Wisconsin needs to go in the same direction and is probably already well at work in international waters. Head coach Kelly Sheffield has said he wants to add another opposite hitter via the transfer portal. However, those waters have dried up. Not that there aren't any opposites left in the portal, but there are no plug-and-play starters. The Badgers were unable to land Kennedy Martin from Florida and even Valentina Vaulet from Michigan. Beyond those two, there are only depth pieces left.
This almost assuredly means that Sheffield is looking internationally, as there are plenty of plug-and-play starters overseas. The recruiting battle is not only convincing them to come, paying them the right amount of money that would be better than the international money, and cutting through the red tape to get that player over here.
It's hard to figure out who those players are, but there are some options, at least in theory, like Vita Akimova from Russia or Ana Kalandadze from Georgia (the country). Those are shots in the dark when looking through rosters and strong up-and-coming players internationally, but Sheffield needs to be looking overseas if he wants to replace Grace Lopez's injury.