The NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports last week approved resources to support the NCAA Mental Health Best Practices.
The Mental Health Best Practices provide evidence- and consensus-based recommendations to member schools for supporting and promoting student-athlete mental health. The new resources, which were recommended by the CSMAS Mental Health Advisory Group, include guidance on teletherapy, social media harassment monitoring, mental health services at major sporting events, and other mental health education opportunities. The resources will be added to the Mental Health Best Practices webpage.
Committee members, who met virtually over two days, also approved updating the Substance Misuse Prevention Tool Kit.
The Mental Health Advisory Group's recommendation for updates to the Substance Misuse Prevention Tool Kit include:
A focus on alcohol, cannabis, vaping and other substances.
Considerations for cultural, community and geographic trends in substance use.
Resources to assist implementation.
Incorporation of harm reduction strategies.
The work will also include considerations for developing broadly applicable prevention and harm reduction guidance for student-athlete substance misuse and related health promotion topics.
Sports betting
After a request from the membership, CSMAS approved a resource on harm reduction strategies regarding sports betting. The resource summarizes previous feedback from the committee, applies existing guidance (e.g., Mental Health Best Practices) to sports betting and outlines available resources.
The three divisional governance structures are debating whether to deregulate sports betting bylaws.
The resource includes recommendations to increase education for student-athletes, administrators and coaches on sports betting and the potential risks to individuals, teammates and their broader community.
The committee noted NCAA research that demonstrated student-athletes are less likely to wager on sports if they receive education on the topic.
Once complete, the resource will be available online and sent directly to schools.
Injury data requests
Committee members received an update on the recently reinstated NCAA Injury Surveillance Program data requests process. The relaunch acknowledges the scientific value of the dissemination of sport injury surveillance data to further the understanding of health and safety initiatives for collegiate student-athletes.
The program, which allows sport-injury researchers to request NCAA injury surveillance data, opened for requests in January. The areas of emphasis approved by the committee for data requests were elbow, lower-leg and noncontact injuries.
Of the submissions received, 16% came from student projects, and 84% came from researchers, professors, physicians and others.
The submissions are under review by an advisory panel, and those chosen to move forward in the process must have their projects completed by July 1, 2026.
