This study examined decision-making by student-athlete advisory committee (SAAC) members within a hegemonic characterization of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Findings revealed that athletes prioritized decisions with tangible, immediate impact – such as mental and physical health and peer support – over broader systemic issues like NCAA legislation. While athletes actively participated in select areas, their perceived influence remained low, particularly within athletic department policy decisions, where findings indicated the greatest gap between participation and desired influence. Such findings reflect a systemic power imbalance that limits athlete agency, reinforced by fears of retribution and structural exclusion from meaningful governance. Although SAAC offers nominal participation, its current form lacks genuine influence. The study advocates for a more empowered SAAC structure or alternative governance reforms, such as independent athlete representation or collective bargaining. These changes could disrupt entrenched power dynamics and create a more democratic, participatory decision-making environment within collegiate athletics.
Collegiate student-athletes (SAs) frequently underreport mental health concerns and are less likely to seek professional support compared to their non-athlete peers. Given the substantial emotional and academic support parents provide, this study examined NCAA Division I parents’ perceptions of their student-athletes’ mental health and overall well-being, as well as their awareness and perceptions of available mental health services. An online survey (N = 178) was administered across two Division I universities. Parents reported considerable concern regarding mental exhaustion, anxiety, academic pressures, and future planning. They also identified sport-specific stressors, including relationships with coaches, playing time, team dynamics, and injuries. Although most parents believed their SA knew how to access support services, fewer perceived coaches as prioritizing mental health. Comparisons with NCAA SA data indicated that while parents’ concerns generally aligned with those of SAs, parents perceived these concerns as significantly more severe. Parents also regarded sport-specific stressors as more acute and expressed significantly less confidence in the adequacy of institutional mental health support. Multivariate analyses revealed heightened concerns among parents of female SAs in individual sports, with minimal variation based on parent gender, sport type, or prior experience with mental health services. Overall, findings emphasize the critical role parents play in supporting SA mental health and underscore the need for athletic departments to strengthen communication regarding available resources and prioritize visible, coach-supported mental health initiatives.
Beginning with the introduction of the transfer portal in 2018, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made several policy changes that have made transferring both easier and more desirable among student athletes, particularly in Division I (DI) revenue-generating sports. Yet, little is known about the relationship between transferring and student athletes’ athletic performance. Using individual- and team-level data on all DI men’s college basketball student athletes from the 2018-19 season through the 2023-24 season, we examine the relationship between transferring and athletic performance, specifically one’s points per game, minutes per game, and number of games started per season. Results indicate that transferring is associated with improved athletic performance for athletes who underperform relative to their teammates prior to transferring but decreased athletic performance for athletes who overperform relative to their teammates. These findings are consistent for athletes transferring from schools in both high major as well as non-high major conferences.
This research explores the promotion of women’s sports programs across Division I athletic departments by specifically looking at the strategies, barriers, and opportunities identified by practitioners. Interest in women’s sports is growing, in large part thanks to popular women athletes such as Caitlin Clark, Juju Watkins, and Olivia Dunne. Despite that growing interest and investment in women’s sports globally, women collegiate athletes still face significant disparities in funding, media coverage, and overall promotion compared to their counterparts who are men. The industry faces a unique pivot point with the introduction of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the pending implications of the House v. NCAA case. Through qualitative interviews with 11 athletic administrators, the authors identified the following themes: (a) discrepancies in resource allocation, (b) conventional marketing strategies, (c) hidden labor burden on women sport coaches and athletes, and (d) opportunities for sustained growth. Using a distributive justice lens, this study offers practical implications for athletic administrators, including recommendations to implement more equitable resource allocation models and develop targeted marketing strategies that lead to sustained visibility and investment in women’s sports.
This mixed-methods study examined how athletic participation relates to perceived career readiness development and explored relationships between athletic identity, academic performance, and post-graduation plans among 124 Division I student-athletes (varsity and club) at a private university. Participants completed surveys measuring athletic identity (AIMS), perceived development of NACE Career Readiness competencies, and open-ended questions about how athletics prepared them for future careers. Varsity athletes reported significantly higher perceived development than club athletes across five competencies: professionalism, critical thinking, communication, technology, and career and self-development. Male athletes reported higher perceived development in professionalism, critical thinking, and technology. Athletic identity demonstrated significant positive correlations with seven of eight career readiness competencies but showed no relationship with GPA. Qualitative analysis identified three themes: collaboration and inclusion, communication, and personal development. Contrary to concerns that strong athletic identity compromises academic or career development, findings suggest that stronger identification with the athlete role is associated with higher perceived career readiness without detriment to academics. Results support a strengths-based approach that helps athletes recognize and articulate transferable competencies gained through sport participation.
The relationship between club sports in intercollegiate athletics and their influence on student recruitment and retention remains underexplored within the broader participatory sport ecosystem. Guided by push–pull models of college selection, this study examines whether the availability of club sports functions as a meaningful pull factor in students’ decisions to enroll in and remain at an institution. Survey data were collected from 151 current undergraduate and graduate club sport athletes across the United States. Exploratory factor analysis identified a distinct Club Sports factor, demonstrating strong construct validity and internal consistency. Multiple regression analyses revealed that club sport availability was a significant predictor of college selection, rivaling—and in some cases surpassing—traditional determinants such as geographic location, coach relationship, and academic considerations. Results further suggest that club sports contribute to students’ sense of institutional fit and intentions to persist, highlighting their relevance beyond initial enrollment decisions. These findings position club sports as more than ancillary recreational opportunities and underscore their potential value as strategic assets for admissions, retention, and student engagement. Implications for higher education administrators and directions for future research are discussed.
Graduate assistantships represent early entry points into intercollegiate athletics and serve as critical sites of professional socialization. Guided by Mead’s (1934) role theory and Foucault’s (1975/1977) concept of power, this study examined how graduate assistants (GAs) negotiated their dual roles as students and employees within Division I Power Four athletic departments. Semi-structured interviews with 10 current GAs revealed how organizational expectations normalized overwork, positioned the master’s degree as a compulsory credential, and sowed imbalance that shaped participants’ identities and well-being. Findings demonstrate how GAs internalized structured constraints and reproduced organizational norms, framing overwork as a necessary rite of passage. These insights extend scholarship on GA roles by highlighting the interplay of power, identity, and professional socialization. We argue that GA experiences reflect and reproduce the culture of overwork in intercollegiate athletics, underscoring the need for sustainable organizational practices to support the next generation of sport employees.
Objective: Suicide among college athletes remains largely underexplored despite rising rates. This qualitative study aimed to explore family members' perspectives on why their loved ones died by suicide. Participants: The study included family members (N=10) of three college athletes who died by suicide in the spring 2022 semester. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted between March and July 2024. ATLAS.ti and Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis were employed to analyze the data and identify themes. Results: The data revealed three primary themes: factors contributing to the suicide crisis, presence of a suicide crisis, and university crisis response. The themes suggested a convergence of adverse conditions creating an environment conducive to suicide. Conclusion: The findings highlight the need for athletic departments to develop crisis intervention and postvention protocols to respond effectively to mental health and suicide crises. They also emphasize the importance of training for athletic department staff and athletes to recognize crises. Finally, institutions must establish mechanisms to bridge HIPAA and FERPA to facilitate improved communication. Keywords: college athlete suicide, prevention, intervention, postvention
Derived from a larger study, this article examines Player Development Personnel (PDPs) in NCAA Power 4 (P4) conferences as they support athlete identity development and navigate role evolution during the NIL implementation era. Although academic advisors and support staff have long contributed to athlete development, limited scholarship has examined how PDPs understand their professional identities, responsibilities, and institutional constraints in NIL-era athletics. Guided by the Narrative, Identity, and Liminality Model (NILM), MNF, and institutional logics, this study situates PDP work within an ecosystem shaped by commercialization, racialized narratives, and organizational expectations (McLean & Syed, 2015; Southall et al., 2008). Semi-structured life story interviews with 11 PDPs across five programs were analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings suggest that PDPs function as cultural brokers who support athletes’ academic, identity, and life-course development while negotiating institutional logics, resource constraints, and market-oriented priorities. Further, there is a need to formalize PDP roles and align institutional priorities with holistic approaches to athlete development.
Following the viral interaction between Nyck Harbor and the Texas State Trooper, Black sport media figures dominated the discourse surrounding the incident. By centering Black sport media figures as sources of discursive authority, this study illuminates the role of (Black) sport media in shaping the understanding and response to experiences of Black college athletes. Using Thompson’s (2022) abductive thematic content analysis, commentary from eight prominent Black sport media voices - Bomani Jones, Stephen A. Smith, Ryan Clark, Cam Newton, Von Miller, Marcellus Wiley, Jason Whitlock, and Etan Thomas - was analyzed. With Dawson's (1994) Linked Fate Theory (LFT) as the analytic framework, the study explores how Black media discourse situates the Harbor-Trooper interaction within the broader social discourse. The findings reveal two disruptions in LFT: Racialized (Athletic) Labor and Intra-group Ideological Disruption. The former emphasizes how the commodification of Black athletic labor results in conditional support from out-group communities, whereas the latter exposes how sociopolitical ideological differences within Black discourse amplify resistance. Collectively, these disruptions demonstrate how viral incidents become sites of racial sensemaking that extend beyond sport. These findings position Black sport media figures as prominent voices who interpret, contextualize, and contest racialized incidents involving Black college athletes.
The rapid expansion of name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities has reshaped the U.S. college sport landscape, yet limited research has examined how NIL engagement affects athlete identity and well-being. This study investigates the relationships among NIL engagement, identity salience, and stress. Survey data were collected from 351 Division I athletes across four major conferences. Regression analyses indicated that greater NIL commitment was associated with heightened athlete identity salience and increased NIL-related stress. NIL satisfaction emerged as a protective factor, predicting lower stress, whereas perceptions of fairness were not significantly related to stress. Brief open-ended survey responses provided explanatory context, identifying limited institutional support, time demands, and procedural complexity as key stressors, while financial benefits, recognition, and identity-aligned partnerships buffered strain. Athletes also highlighted inequities related to gender, sport, and international status. Collectively, the findings illustrate how NIL engagement can simultaneously intensify identity and strain, while clarifying conditions under which NIL experiences may support athlete well-being.
This study explored how the transfer portal has transformed college football recruiting by disrupting traditional relationship-based practices and accelerating the shift toward a transactional performance-driven model. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, and capital, the research examines how recruiting coordinators navigate evolving pressures around talent acquisition, NIL compensation, and compressed recruiting timelines. Findings from comprehensive interviews with five Power-4 recruiting personnel reveal that relationships are increasingly leveraged for short-term gain. The findings of this study indicate the transfer portal has created an opaque high-stakes marketplace where trust is limited, valuation is speculative, and institutional pedigree/resources heavily influence opportunities. The evolving landscape of collegiate athletics challenges longstanding values and necessitates new strategies from recruiters operating in a deregulated and hyper-competitive environment. Implications include reconsidering ethical standards, regulatory mechanisms, and athlete support systems in a rapidly shifting field of play.
The NCAA has recognized the growing mental health crisis among student-athletes over the last decade and responded by publishing best practices, passing related legislation, and conducting surveys with student-athletes and coaches regarding mental health. This qualitative study explored the perceptions and insights of 22 Division I student-athletes on current strategies and resources designed to provide the best mental health support to them, along with what they perceive as the barriers or resource deficiencies related to seeking help. This applied research was done in the context of the best practices outlined in the NCAA’s Interassociation Consensus Document: Mental Health Best Practices, along with the 2019 NCAA legislation guaranteeing student-athletes access to mental health services and resources, and through the lens of an emerging mental health literacy theoretical framework. The overarching themes that emerged included (a) the importance of coaches, (b) institutional/administrative culture, (c) barriers to seeking support (time, stigma, resources), and (d) triggers and root causes. Based on the pervasiveness of the importance of coaches as a standalone theme and a contributing factor cited by athletes in each of the other emergent themes, the focus and emphasis is on that theme in our results and subsequent discussion.
Leadership programming in NCAA Division I athletics is designed to support holistic athlete development, including career readiness, financial literacy, and personal growth. However, participation in selective initiatives like the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is often limited, raising concerns about equality and access. Through the theory of social reproduction, our study examines how these programs reflet and reinforce structural inequalities. Interviews with athletic staff reveal selection procedures (or lack thereof) privilege athletes who already possess social and cultural capital and therefore reproduce existing hierarchies rather than serve as a developmental tool. The findings highlight the importance of transparent selection criteria, intentional resource allocation, and athlete-driven program design. By using athlete voices and broadening access, institutions can transform leadership programming from a mechanism of privilege into a pathway for skill development and long-term well-being.
This study presents a chronological case study exploring the University of Texas Austin wherein a broad coalition of students, college athletes, marching band members and others from the UT community engaged in several forms of activism challenging the university to address racial inequities. Unlike other sport organizations that swiftly supported activist efforts, the University of Texas serves as a case where leadership attempted to uphold the status quo and stifle dissent. Thus, this manuscript explores the oscillating dynamic between sport activism and organizational responses when a broad coalition of actors, lacking status, influence, and power, engage in continued efforts to ensure their actions create change. Employing a framework of internal and external activism, our intentions with this manuscript are to focus on the actions of the Coalition. We discuss the process of escalation, a lack of solidarity, and the importance of status and financial resources. We situate our findings in relation to previous research and theorization on sport activism.
Social media is central to college athletics, yet public visibility can expose collegiate student-athletes to online harassment, a risk the NCAA has recently highlighted by documenting sizable volumes of abusive, discriminatory, and betting-related content directed at athletes and officials. This study surveyed 85 NCAA Division I student-athletes from ten universities across the Mid-American Conference and assessed social-media behaviors, online harassment exposure, depression, and anxiety. Most athletes used social media 1–3 hours/day, 78% enabled name-mention alerts, and platforms commonly used included Instagram (98.8%) and X (65.9%). Online harassment was reported via social posts (9.4%), direct messages (4.7%), and texts (3.5%), with incidents on Instagram (6%) and X (5%). Online harassment correlated positively with depression but not anxiety. In regression models, harassment and gender predicted depression; the interaction was nonsignificant. Models predicting anxiety were not significant. Findings indicate that hostile online content is a meaningful digital stressor associated with depressive symptoms among Division I athletes amid substantial platform exposure. Athletics programs should pair brand/visibility guidance with digital safety education, confidential reporting systems, and routine mental health screening. Future multi-conference, longitudinal studies with higher-resolution harassment measures (including timing relative to competition) are warranted to clarify causal pathways and identify protective factors.
With the introduction of the NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policy in July 2021, student-athletes have become increasingly reliant on social media for personal branding and monetization. However, prior research suggests that excessive social media use can negatively impact student-athletes’ well-being, highlighting the need for targeted digital literacy education. Addressing these concerns, this study designed and evaluated an online intervention, “Student-Athlete Training for Online Resilience Management” (STORM), aimed at improving student-athletes’ perceived knowledge and confidence in navigating social media-related risks. Using two waves of survey data (N = 117), the study assessed changes in perceived knowledge of social media risks, coping strategies, and time management, as well as confidence in the ability to stay safe and manage time when using social media. The intervention produced significant gains across all domains. Correlational analyses revealed a positive association between baseline digital risk exposure and program outcomes, and a negative association between baseline psychosocial well-being and program outcomes, suggesting that at-risk participants likely benefitted the most from the program. This study contributes theoretically by illustrating how digital risk factors, psychosocial health, and institutional support shape student-athletes’ engagement with social media, while providing a ready-to-implement, evidence-based intervention to support student-athletes’ digital literacy education.
There are over a million international students pursuing their degrees in U.S. universities. Among them are 25,000 international student-athletes (ISAs) who are enrolled in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) affiliated Universities. While studies have been striving to foster and support this population’s successful transition to the U.S., few studies are available that deal with international student-athletes competing in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) affiliated universities. Hence, based on the transition theory, this study utilized focus group interviews to explore the transition experiences of ISAs competing in NAIA. Based on previous studies that explored the transition experiences of ISAs in NCAA-affiliated universities, the results of this study found similarities in the hardships that ISAs in NAIA experience during their transition to the U.S. Potential differences were found as lack of support from their coaches and resource available from NAIA to support their transition. Practical implications were suggested for NAIA to develop a comprehensive handbook to guide ISAs’ successful transition, strengthen relationships with the local community to foster a stronger sense of community for ISAs, and add dedicated staff to support ISAs during their transition.
As many National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions continue to engage in athletic centric decision-making processes, academic integrity and the campus experience for college athletes is often marginalized. Mandated by the NCAA to represent athletes’ academic interests, the faculty athletics representative (FAR) position is designed to occupy a central role in maintaining the primacy of academia among college athletes. FARs, however, exist within an institutional setting muddled by competing and contradictory logics. Accordingly, given the inherent juxtaposition between the operation of collegiate athletics and the stated role of FARs, the present study sought to examine the characteristics and positional responsibilities of faculty currently serving as FARs at NCAA member institutions. A sample of 308 FAR respondents from the 2022-2023 academic year illustrate that despite the differing formation and logics present across NCAA Divisions, the characteristics and job functions of FARs are strikingly similar regardless of member institution divisional classification.
This qualitative study examined attitudes about Black male college athletes (BMCA)in predominantly White higher education institutions. To investigate the experience in the classroom, the purpose of this study was to inquire into the perception of the BMCA identity from the identity of the non-college athletes (NCA). Using the social identity complexity model, we sought to understand the perceptions that influence group formation among college students. The present study employed the film elicitation technique to examine the NCAs’ perceptions of the legitimacy of the BMCA identity in higher education during faculty interactions and its correlation to ingroup formation. The findings from this study indicate that the presence of the BMCA increases the perceived stress of NCAs. As a result, NCAs isolate BMCAs from the ingroup and tolerate BMCAs as outgroup members for their value to the institution as a corporation. Implications for student affairs practitioners on social integration are discussed.
