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Your research question is what contributes to the mental health issues? So, what you have in this category is perhaps not about "planning for the future"...at least the evidence you have doesn't really point to that. what you have is: 1) time commitments and the loopholes in the 20 hour rule. 2) taking easer classes and majors, and 3) academic fraud. I want to find a connection here between all three and I think it is about fraud or finding loopholes in the rules, or manipulating the rules? But I don't think it is "planning for the future". But because of this, the cohesion of the sandwiches is lacking a bit in this category.

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Interview with Track and Field Sophomore student-athlete at Cal.

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Interview with Track and Field Sophomore student-athlete at Cal.

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1. Around what percentage of athletes identify as LGBTQ?

“Uh I’d say 2/14 on my running team identify for cross as a part of the community if you don’t include allies”

2. Are these students treated any differently?

“The students aren’t treated differently and have the same resources as all other athletes but I think they feel isolated sometimes by teammates’ use of language that can be seen as demeaning or derogatory”

3. Is there any talk about fairness for transgender athletes amongst your fellow athletes?

“3. There are lots of teammates that think transgender athletes are okay as long as they’re underneath a specific threshold of testosterone so it is fair for cisgender people. By “okay” I mean heavily support the idea that all people should be able to compete in activities they love but in a way that doesn’t irritate cisgender people because their hormone levels give trans people an advantage you know?”

4. Are LGBTQ student-athletes bullied under any circumstances? (I read that this happened widely in colleges 4 years ago so I was wondering if this still happens today)

“Not to my knowledge”

5. I was reading this, and they had pretty violent stuff like: “… I was walking in the course for a race that I was expected to win, and a teammate of mine took a rock, about the size of a softball and threw it at the back of my head. … And he said, ‘what’s the big deal? It’s just that gay pussy fag kid’” [46].

“Yikes that might happen at some like midwestern state but not really in Cali. Just don’t experience that at my team at all”

Discussion:

Interviewer: “I feel like it would be so hard”

Interviewee: “What would be so hard?”

Interviewer: “Oh I was reading another data statistic that said that LGBTQ students have a harder time with mental health, even recently, the study was conducted byt he NCAA in 2022”

Interviewee: “I think our counselors acknowledge that and we have specific student-athlete counselors for free. To help with mental health and lgbtq+ safe space motto because people can feel unwelcome and cal heavily tries to eliminate. But from what I see it’s more like my teammate who’s part of lgbtq+ community just doesn’t feel understood, not necessarily by the team but by everyone around them”

Interviewer: “That’s cool, oh also, do you guys have financial literacy classes”

Interviewee: “What’s that?”

…

Interviewer: “Is your team racially diverse”

Interviewee: “Track and field is very diverse, cross country only has a couple of latinos and 1 African American”

Interviewer: “And are there like academic expectations that are intense or do the coaches not care.”

Interviewee: “ There aren’t really any academic expectations. Just make sure they’re above 2.0 lol. My coach says school > running but he ultimately doesn’t care”

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Mental Health concerns by feelings about family's current financial situation.

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Students with financial burdens are more likely to be affected by mental health. The NCAA took a survey of 645 and 26% of students noted that financial worries as the top factor negatively impacting their mental health. When comparing the mental health of students with negative financial situations with their families with students without a financial burden, those with financial burdens had nearly twice as many students indicate that they were “overwhelmed”, “anxious”, “depressed”, and “sleep difficulties” (NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Study (Fall 2021)).  This shows a huge correlation between not being financially supported and bad mental health in student-athletes. It can be easy to infer, that the constant fear of losing their scholarship due to not performing well enough in the classroom or on the field contributes to mental exhaustion.

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In an annual survey by the NCAA, student-athletes who identified as part of the LGBTQ community rated 10% -16% higher in the categories: “felt mentally exhausted”, “felt very lonely, felt sad”, “felt overwhelming anxiety”, “experienced sleep difficulties, felt things were hopeless” and “felt so depressed that was difficult to function” (NCAA Student-Athlete Well-being, 2022) Student-athletes with a queer identity show more signs of mental health problems and may be due to bullying, struggling with their identity and not feeling heard as discussed below.

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Critics claim that team sports “stimulate growth in cooperation, leadership, dialogue, strategizing and other life and career skills.” (Crawford, 2022) and make student-athletes more desirable as business recruits. This article however disregards many aspects of a student athlete's education that make them less competitive compared to the general student population. Firstly, as full-time athletes who spend over 20 hours on sports a week (Lever, 2023), it's hard to squeeze in time for other academic or professional development. This means it's much harder to take rigorous courses that require hours and hours of tackling problem sets. Furthermore, being a student-athlete is very taxing, after practice they may not even have the energy or enough sleep to conduct effective studying required for a university course. Lastly, athletes are often advised to choose easier courses, leading to scenarios where "clustering" happens: the majority of a team, typically African-American-dominated teams all end up in the same major (Kleen, 2021). Thus, being a student-athlete definitely does not guarantee a stable income right after graduation even if teamwork and leadership skills are built. It is more likely that they feel unprepared for a career that they have spent less time preparing for compared to their peers. This uncertainty for their futures builds on their pressure and affects the mental health of the student-athlete.

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Some might say that with the new rules on the NIL, it might be easier for students to mitigate the burden from financial burdens. The truth is that this also comes with many challenges. As wealth advisor, Sprung mentions in an op-ed, “At this point in their lives, many of these young athletes may not have created good financial habits. Additionally, their immediate family members may not have had the time to educate them, either.” However, they already have to know that they should be planning their taxes, seeking a suitable agent, and signing sponsorships. This may become an additional task that the student-athlete needs to handle. On top of being a student and an athlete, they now also have to worry about investments and protecting their short-term wealth (Sprung). Students may be sexualized on social media as in the case of Livvy Dunne or they may have to deal with team conflicts due to only one or two players getting huge amounts of money even though many sports are a team effort. Thus, although NIL may alleviate some of the financial burdens of some of the top student-athletes who manage to get sponsorships and deals, it also introduces new challenges for these student-athletes financially and mentally.

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In “Flaws of the 20-hour rule” Dr. Lever describes the numerous hours that go into a student athlete’s training and sports career but go unaccounted for by the 20-hour rule due to loopholes in the policy. Mandatory runs may be deemed voluntary, flights and commutes to the sports meets are deemed “athletically unrelated”, and the commute back home is also not accounted for. Students are said to be using 5 hours a week when the number is closer to 22.5 hours a week at times (Lever, 2023). This leads to a dilemma on whether or not student-athletes can survive the exhaustive lifestyle put upon them by their schools and the NCAA. It puts great doubt on whether they can balance their double role as a full-time student and athlete and sometimes as a family provider. In order to deal with the mental health struggles that students have, we need to truly understand what causes the causes of their stress and anxiety.

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As compared to previous studies regarding LGBTQ students, in recent years athletes’ conflicts were less agressive in comparison but still existed nonetheless. A LGBTQ student Ethan suggested, “in sports, we may be getting to a place where I don’t hear slurs on the field.” However, conflicts still existed. Another student Mark described “multiple times where there were derogatory and clearly uncomfortable comments made toward me. There were one or two times where explicitly I was, by one teammate in particular, called a fag.” Another female athelte Emily described how a new coach disqualified her and two other openly homosexual teammates “We were all starters on the team. He told us, ‘You know, you’re not going to play.’ . . . And we’re like, ‘Okay.’ But he’s like, ‘But I have no problem releasing you to go to another school.’” This led her to transfer from that private, Christian school to an urban, public university in the same state (Scott et al.). This shows how the inherent bias towards students of the LGBTQ community still would affect them on a daily basis and even lead them to leave a team. These types of experiences would probably lead to tense if not hateful relationships between the students and come of their fellow teammates and coaches. We have to note although all of the interviews were conducted across America, six out of ten were conducted in the South, two out of ten were conducted in teh midwest and the remaining two were conducted in the NorthEast.

The bias in politically and religiously conservative states may be the root cause for homonegativity experienced by LGBTQ students.

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In a lawsuit by two student-athletes, Mccants and Ramsay, against UNC and the NCAA, the two athletes list the numerous academic frauds that forced students into easier classes or gave them unsound grades. One example was in 1986, a Syracuse University basketball player who failed a course and was in danger of losing his eligibility was permitted to retake the course with an individual tutor, without registering for the course. “The athlete earned a C upon retaking the course, and his academic transcript was altered so that the new grade replaced the failing grade.” In 1988, in order to establish eligibility for a transferring football player, the recruiting coordinator at the University of California-Berkeley convinced a community college instructor to give the player academic credit, “although the player had never attended a class or completed any academic work.” From 1998-2000, a recruiting coordinator at the University of Kentucky knowingly committed academic fraud by preparing papers for enrolled student-athletes. “student-athletes would participate in study sessions organized by the recruiting coordinator, with the knowledge and approval of the head football coach, during which the recruiting coordinator would provide written passages and oral suggestions to the athletes to help them complete their homework.” This type of academic fraud continues today as Mccants and Ramsay state that they also experienced classes where their grades were not being determined by the faculty teaching the class. This implies firstly that student-athletes may have a hard time balancing their school work on top of their training but furthermore, shows how the NCAA exploits them while not giving them a meaningful education to prepare them for their future careers.

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Student-athletes have often been advised or peer pressured to choose easier classes so that they can manage their coursework on top of the sports that they do. NCAA conducts surveys yearly to asses the graduation rate and major of students. From their surveys, we can see that more students take up majors within the business  (26% of student-athletes compared to 18% for the general student body) or parks, recreation, and fitness (6% for student-athletes compared to 3% for the general student body)  category and fewer students take up STEM majors (16% compared to 27%). This is a continuing trend even if we look at the years before 2018 and it shows how student-athletes are generally taking less rigorous courses  (Gallup Study: Undergraduate Experiences and Post-College Outcomes of NCAA Student-Athletes). This perhaps is due to the limited time they have left after training but also because there are stereotypes and stories that scare students away from harder majors. They probably would choose the easier option than lose their scholarship and be kicked out of their team. This also means that once they graduate all their time spent at school is meaningless. If students come out of college with skills comparable to waiters are they really getting a meaningful education?

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The truth is that even though the NIL policy may have benefited some of the top players of the popular sports it isn’t very sufficient. As PBS reports “The highest-grossing college athletes reap only a very small share of the revenues they generate during their college careers.” Furthermore, because of the excessive costs of these programs, many schools are “increasing student athletic fees (many exceed $1000 per student yearly) and contribute to increases in tuition” in order to break even (Zimbalist, 2023). This leads to even more financial pressure on most of the student-athletes who do not receive sponsorships. Given that 26% of students have financial burdens from their families this exacerbates the pressure that students have to face.

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What contributes to the deteriorating mental health of modern student-athletes in the US?

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This metaethnography compiles a series of interviews with LGBTQ student athletes. These student athletes account various experiences with violence and discrimination. One gay interviewee accounted an incident where he experienced violence from a teammate “… I was walking in the course for a race that I was expected to win, and a teammate of mine took a rock, about the size of a softball and threw it at the back of my head. … And he said, ‘what’s the big deal? It’s just that gay pussy fag kid” Another student described how internalized prejudice from the judges limited her opportunities from joining the team. “I know, especially women’s basketball that it is a huge no-no. [The coach] makes it very clear to the players that will not be … that they will not be open. Moreover, that’s obviously something that’s not talked about or well known, but they’ll tell you that it’s not accepted”. Its easy to imagine why students who identify as LGBTQ struggle with mental health (Xiang, 2023).

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“About Hybrid Instruction.” Fordham Forward, Fordham University, www.fordham.edu/resources/coronavirus-updates/fordham-forward/teaching-and-learning/getting-started-in-a-flexible-hybrid-environment/about-hybrid-instruction/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

Crawford, Gregory. “Council Post: Student-Athletes as Sought-after Business Recruits.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 15 Nov. 2022, www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2022/11/14/student-athletes-as-sought-after-business-recruits/?sh=5cdbd0532bd8.

“Division I Diploma Dashboard.” NCAA.Org, 2018, www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/5/15/division-i-diploma-dashboard.aspx

“Division II Diploma Dashboard.” NCAA.Org, 2018, www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/5/15/division-ii-diploma-dashboard.aspx

Elbaba, Julia. “Looking at the Top College Football Head Coach Salaries in 2022.” NBC Sports Chicago, NBC Sports Chicago, 8 Sept. 2022, www.nbcsportschicago.com/ncaa/looking-at-the-top-college-football-head-coach-salaries-in-2022/328860/.

Gallup Study: Undergraduate Experiences and Post-College Outcomes of NCAA Student-Athletes, NCAA, 2020, ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/research/other/2020/2020RES_GallupNCAAOutcomes.pdf.

General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division 15 CVS 1782. Rashanda Mccants and Devon Ramsay vs. the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hiill. no. 1782, 22 Jan. 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp-content/uploads/sites/42/2015/01/UNC-Complaint-Filed-Copy-1-22-15.pdf. Accessed 7 Oct. 2023.

Kleen, Brendon. “‘They Don’t Feel Adequately Prepared’: How Schools Struggle to Ready Athletes for Success After College Sports.” Global Sport Matters, 21 Sept. 2021, globalsportmatters.com/research/2021/09/21/schools-struggle-ready-athletes-success-after-college-sports-ncaa-eddie-comeaux/.

Lever, Katie. “Flaws of the 20-Hour Rule: 2aDays News.” 2aDays, 2adays, 27 June 2023, www.2adays.com/blog/flaws-of-the-20-hour-rule/.

NCAA Recruiting Facts, NCAA, 2022, ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/compliance/recruiting/NCAA_RecruitingFactSheet.pdf.

NCAA, 2022, NCAA Student-Athlete Well-Being Study (Fall 2021).

“Pac Leaders: Stephen Etter Teaches Financial Literacy Class for Cal Student-Athletes.” Pac 12 Network, YouTube, 22 Dec. 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S_pIDBWHOI. Accessed 11 Oct. 2023.

Scott, D Travers, et al. “‘You’re a Cog in a System that Needs to Work’: Conditional Acceptance of LGBTQ College Athletes .” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol. 10, no. 1, 2023, pp. 99–122. Project Muse, https://doi.org/ 10.14321/qed.10.1.0099.

Setega, John. Interview. Conducted by Anthea Guo. Sep 27th, 2023.

Sprung, Lawrence D. “Op-Ed: Here’s the Financial Impact of the NCAA Permitting College Athletes to Profit off Their Name, Image and Likeness.” CNBC, CNBC, 13 Sept. 2021, www.cnbc.com/2021/09/13/heres-impact-of-ncaa-letting-college-athletes-profit-off-their-marketability.html.

Xiang, Meng, et al. “Experiences of LGBTQ student-athletes in college sports: A meta-ethnography.” Heliyon, vol. 9, no. 6, 1 June 2023. E16832, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16832.

Zimbalist, Andrew. “Analysis: Who Is Winning in the High-Revenue World of College Sports?” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 18 Mar. 2023, www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/analysis-who-is-winning-in-the-high-revenue-world-of-college-sports.

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The NCAA came up with the 20-hour rule in 2009 to restrict the number of hours student-athletes spend on training so that they could have a balanced college life. However, this rule has not taken into account the numerous activities that students take part in that are also athletically related. This article by Dr. Lever, explains a day in the life of a student-athlete, being a former student-athlete herself. She states that  “compliance meetings”, “organized team promotional activities”, “recruiting activities”, “student-host duties”, “media activities”, “fundraising events”, “community service events”, “team-building activities”, “travel to and from away-from-home competition” aren’t included in the 20 hours rule. Thus coaches can push students to have work hours equivalent to a full paid job. Lever gives an example of how a meet that was counted as 5 hours of athletic-related time actually had 22.5 hours of athletically-related time in a week (Lever, 2023). On top of academics, this type of time commitment would be impossible for a student to balance, especially since these students are typically around 18-22 and are perhaps living alone for the first time. As they struggle with their double-faced duty as a student and an athlete, they are bound to feel the pressure of not being able to complete everything within the limited time they have.

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Student-athletes aren't paid fairly for the work that they do. Although, collegiate sports should embody "amateurism", the sport brings in millions of dollars in income to NCAA coaches each year. According to NBC Sports, the average coaching salary for 108 NCAA Division I coaches is $1.75 million. Whereas the top-paid coaches have a salary of around 10 million. (Elbaba, 2023) However, most college athletes never get compensated outside of their scholarships, and according to a study by the NCAA themselves “around 59% of them incurred debt after graduation with one-third of athletes leaving with over $40,000 in debt” (Gallup, 2020). Furthermore, with confidence in their future career paths, it's easy to see why students can become overwhelmed with the financial burdens that college sports put on them.

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Dear Chisako,

I've really enjoyed this project and learning more about student athletes' lives. Throughout this pursuit, the reasons behind the seemingly simple question surrounding the wellness of the student-athlete have become more and more subtle.

One of the interesting topics that popped up midway was the fact that LGBTQ students seem to suffer more from mental health issues compared to other students. It started from seeing statistics that showed that students from LGBTQ communities were suffering more to reading papers about why they were suffering more. In many cases, LGBTQ students worried that their teammates misunderstood that they put their queer identity before their commitment to sports. Other reasons for their worries were implicit homonegativity and explicit abuse. It was difficult to define the landscape of homonegativity as a whole, but it was clear that more conservative states and schools (religious schools) conducted much more harm to these students.

Another interesting thing about this research was that there were plenty of counterarguments on the way. When looking up evidence, I would often find a counterargument to my evidence and that would prompt me to look further at the accountability of the source and whether or not I was completely wrong. For example, it was hard to find any evidence about the average compensation for each student but the top 10 paid students were earning millions of dollars. However, with interviews with my friend John and looking at the sparseness of superstar athletes it was clear that only a few were making a fortune.

Lastly, I think after my research on all of the categories, I felt like I could definitely expand further on any one of the single topics and bring light on more of the subtleties within them. It was overall a great learning experience!

Best regards,
Anthea

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In many situations, student-athletes are affected by so much pressure that it pushes them to the limits of their mental health. Perhaps the weight of trying to balance their hardly compensated jobs and their need to be prepared for society is the reason why they find it hard to cope.

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After reading about the discrepancies between different states, I wanted to learn more about the discrimination that existed at Cal. I therefore interviewed a current Cal student-athlete in track and field. He identifies as a straight male but provides some observations about his team. He stated that 2/14 of his running team identified to be part of the LGBTQ community and that most students were friendly towards them. There was no directed harm or implicit exclusion felt. Even though my interviewee was a straight male, I think it is safe to conclude that California is a much more liberal place compared to the evidence above (Setega). This shows how the student-athlete experience may differ greatly from region to region. In a more conservative state, there may be a lot more hate and homophobia but in more liberal states with bigger universities, student-athletes who identify as LGBTQ are probably much more respected. However, from the data shown by the NCAA, it can be seen that LGBTQ students still face huge challenges today that result in a worse state of mental health than normal student athletes.

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When talking to many student-athletes, Kleen found that many student-athletes were choosing majors that were easier because the school didn't provide accommodations for these students. He suggested that schools should have more hybrid classes that would allow students to attend if they were training far away from campus or offering extra classes in the evenings that didn't conflict with student athletes' morning class schedules (Kleen). At the end of the 2020-2021 school year, remote or hybrid learning stuck around with "28% (of K-12 students) in hybrid schools" (Pandey). Many universities have also begun to offer hybrid courses. This can be seen in numerous rankings that exist online for universities with the best hybrid courses. Although many of these courses are offered for immunocompromised students, students with illnesses, and or students who have delays in gaining a student visa (About hybrid instruction) they should also be provided for the student-athlete due to their training schedules that hinder them from enrolling in certain classes related to their career of interest. Furthermore, schools should create courses that help students tackle the new challenges that the NIL brings. Without sufficient knowledge about personal finance, it's easy to lose your wealth fast as personal finance coach Kleen states. Berkeley Haas created courses for student-athletes so they could better understand sponsorships, deals, and managing their wealth (Pac 12 Network). It is crucial for schools to provide support to student-athletes early in their careers. With concrete steps toward improving student athletes' mental health, perhaps we can create a meaningful education for the amateur yet professional student-athlete.

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Pac Leaders: Stephen Etter teaches financial literacy class for Cal student-athletes

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Division I college football and basketball players face limited prospects after college. Fewer than 2 percent of college football and men’s basketball athletes ever play a single game in the professional National Football League (NFL) or National Basketball Association (NBA)  (NCAA Recruiting, 2022). This extremely low percentage of success shows that colleges have the obligation to prepare students for alternative career paths outside of college sports, or else it will be extremely hard to strive after college with no meaningful skills or degree. This also means that the majority of students need to strive for their academic interests and invest time in professional development on top of sports.